Kenya’s Petroleum Secretary, John Munyes says the deal signed by Kenya and Turkana oil exploration firms that will see them source up to Sh300 billion ($3 billion) funding from international financiers will be kept secret from taxpayers.

After 15 months of negotiations cover aspects such as cost recovery, fiscal review and tax incentives, the Heads of Terms (HoT) agreement was signed Tuesday with Tullow Oil and its joint partners, Total and Africa Oil.

Petroleum Ministry bureaucrats cited official secrecy and commercial confidentiality while declining to disclose details of the agreement reached with three oil majors for development of the South Lokichar oil basin.

The document is supposed to set out the preliminary terms of commercial principles reached between Kenya and the oil majors over the development of the Amosin, Ngamia and Twiga oil fields.