It has been reported that the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK) may do an IPO in 2019 with a goal of raising money to buy shares in oil blocks held by Tullow in Turkana, Northern Kenya

The most recently published annual accounts of National Oil were done by the Office of the Government’s Auditor General for the year to June 2014. Surely there are more accounts in the last three years as NOCK has gone through many changes at the board and executive level as well as in auditing requirements.

For the year to June 2014, National Oil had revenue of Kshs 23.6 billion and ended with a deficit of Kshs 657 million, down from a surplus the year before of Kshs 221 million. The audit, done by KPMG for the Auditor General, attributed the loss to the company having dead stocks worth Kshs 929 million at the Kenya Petroleum Refineries which they could not access – and this was probably at the time that the refinery management was the subject of an investment dispute between India’s Essar and the Kenya government.

National Oil had assets of Kshs 9.6 billion which included exploitation in Block 14T located in Magadi Kenya. Exploration work is being funded at Block 14T by a Japan oil & gas corporation (JOGMEC) .

National Oil is wholly owned by the Government of Kenya (99% Treasury, 1% Ministry of Energy) and received capital injection of Kshs 500 million in 2009 that had not been factored in. NOCK trades in refined petroleum, does some petroleum exploration and is mandated at the vehicle for the government of Kenya to participate in the energy sector.  It had a $12 million trade finance facility with KCB to purchase stocks and NOCK had also been contracted by the Government to construct a floating oil jetty at Mombasa.

The NOCK listing would be on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and London stock exchange. Perhaps much juicier than National Oil, would be an IPO of Kenya Pipeline which had assets of Kshs 73 billion and a profit go Kshs 10 billion in 2015.