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"content": "contract between the Government and contractors in the area of petroleum exploration, development and production. Some of those issues are now taken care of in this Bill. This Bill is about upstream production activities. These are activities that have to do with exploration and production of petroleum, as opposed to downstream operations, which involve distribution of petroleum to residential, industrial or other end user facilities. The activities, therefore, involve all operations related to exploration, development, production, separation, treatment, storage and transportation of petroleum up to the agreed delivery point. In Clause 4, the Bill is described as the framework Bill in upstream petroleum operations. In other words, in matters of upstream operations in the area of petroleum, this Bill will supersede any other law. In Clause 5, the Cabinet Secretary is under obligation to develop national upstream petroleum policy plans and strategic plans, and publish such plans. In Clause 8, no one may engage in exploration or production of petroleum without the approval of the relevant authorities established under this Bill. In Clause 12 there is the composition of an institution known as the National Upstream Petroleum Advisory Committee. It is of interest to this House to note that the Council of Governors will have a representative in that committee. That is something in the right direction in terms of the sharing of responsibilities between the national Government and county governments. Allow me to also highlight a few other provisions, in particular, Clause 41, on the ownership of petroleum resources in the country. The Clause vests the ownership of all petroleum resources in this country on the people of Kenya. This is a major paradigm shift from what we have had in the past, where the state used to own resources. That has now been changed. The State can only hold those resources as a trustee, but the ownership is in the people of the Republic of Kenya. That is a major point of departure from what has been prevailing, especially under the old petroleum law. Clause 44 says that it is only contractors with the required financial, technical and professional capacity that may be engaged to do operations in the area of petroleum exploration, production, et cetera, so that we do not have briefcase contractors. In this country we have had cases of people with no known expertise and financial or technical capacity being given exploration blocks and they are unable to engage in exploration or production of petroleum. There is an obligation now on the Government to ensure that only contractors with the relevant and predetermined capacity, in terms of human resource, technical, professional and financial capability are given contracts to explore or produce oil. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Clause 54 says that the contractor must notify the Cabinet Secretary (CS) who is the only authorised person to announce to the public the discovery of petroleum products. Still under Clause 54(4), the contractor is also under an obligation to notify the CS in the event of discovery of any other natural resource in the course of oil exploration or production. In the event that they discover other minerals or other natural resources in the course of oil exploration, there is a duty to disclose. Under Clause 72, the contractor is under an obligation to give information and to report to the relevant authorities established under this Bill all geological, geochemical, geophysical surveys, drilling, completion and production data and any other information The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}