Tullow oil Kenya, an international company tasked with the responsibility of exploration of oil in the vast Turkana County has temporary suspended its drilling operations in the country due to security concerns.

Led by their local MPs, local residents are reported to have held several protests on Tullow’s sites demanding that they be given a fair share of jobs at the sites and demanded an explanation from Tullow president on the criteria the firm used to hire workers.

The demonstrating residents blocked all roads leading to the drilling sites and vowed not to back down until their demands were met.

“We have temporarily suspended our operations across Block 10BB and Block 13T in Turkana East and Turkana South sub-counties. The priority at the moment is to ensure the safety and security of our staff,” Tullow said in a statement.

Tullow announced discovery of oil in Kenya last year and confirmed that two wells twiga-1 and ngamia-1 had a potential of 250 million barrels of oil. Late last month, the oil exploration company announced its fourth oil discovery; the Ekales-1 wildcat, located in Block 13T in Northern Kenya after announcing another discovery in Agete-1.

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