Kenya has revised upwards the minimum amount of money oil exploration firms have to spend on work programmes in onshore and offshore areas.

To qualify for award of exploration rights, firms applying for new acreage from this month will be required to commit to spending $28.2 million in the initial two years onshore and $31.2 million offshore in the first three years.

A new term sheet by the Ministry of Energy details the minimum work and exploration obligations, the mechanism for firms to recover money spent on exploration if commercial oil discoveries are made and profit sharing with the government.

Energy Permanent Secretary Patrick Nyoike said production-sharing contracts (PSCs) will be signed with firms that agree to pay $1 million as one-off commitment fee for an exploration area. The commitment fee has been raised from $300,000 and explorers must have a balance sheet of $100 million.