The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has been drilling for oil and gas in Kenya's North Eastern province and ministers had made optimistic statements that Kenya would soon join the club of oil-producing countries.

"The well is (already) 5,085 metres deep and the temperatures at that depth are very high and therefore there is no possibility of getting oil," Patrick Nyoike, permanent secretary at the energy ministry, told reporters.

"Originally, they were supposed to go to a depth of 5,500 to 5,600 metres and up to where they are now, there are no further indications of getting either gas or oil. They have stopped (drilling)," he added.

"By next month, we will tell the public whether we have commercial quantities of gas," Nyoike added, in reference to the limited supply of gas that has been found during the drilling.

With recent oil and gas finds in Uganda and Tanzania, large deposits already exploited in southern Sudan and others believed to be lying under Ethiopia's restive Ogaden region, Kenya had become increasingly hopeful it too was sitting on untapped oil wealth.

East Africa is considered a frontier market for oil exploration companies, which have been pouring into the region in recent years, and Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi was upbeat at an energy conference in Nairobi last week.

"God is not that unfair so as to allow oil to be discovered in Uganda, Southern Sudan and gas in Tanzania and forget that we are here in Kenya. We have high hopes and expectations," he had said.

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