Africa Oil on Wednesday said oil reserve projections in Kenya’s Turkana County’s South Lokichar Basin have surged five times following 12 months of assessing the region.

According to Kenya’s Daily Nation, this revelation was made by the Canadian oil firm, Africa Oil earlier this week.

Daily Nation quoted Keith Hill, Africa Oil CEO, that recent oil assessments in the area have shown that the Basin holds almost 368 million barrels of oil.

Hill said these volumes exceeded the maximum for “commercial development,” projecting the area could have more than a billion barrels.

Africa Oil has been searching the area together with Tullow Oil, the London-based oil firm.

The company has assets in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia via a 45 percent shareholding in Horn Petroleum Corporation.

Africa Oil’s holdings include working interests in operated and non-operated Production Sharing Contracts (PSC’s) in Kenya, Ethiopia and Puntland (Somalia) in East Africa, the company said in a statement.