Kenya is planning at some time in the future to export oil via Lamu, with the oil coming via yet-to-be-built pipelines from South Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia and the Turkana region of Kenya. In the meantime, East Africa imports oil for its needs via the port of Mombasa, and the current jetties in the Mombasa area are inadequate to fulfil the growing oil import needs of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Thus Kenya is seeking a commercial partner to pay for a large new oil jetty, which has an estimated cost of up to $100 million. The country’s main oil jetty at Kipevu has a maximum ship capacity of 85,000 tonnes, and the smaller jetty at Shimanzi has a limit of 30,000 tonnes. As a result of limited jetty capacity and also limited storage in the country, oil ships often have to queue up waiting for a berth, and the cost of oil is higher because of the congestion and associated delays.
An upgrade is also planned for the Changamwe Oil Refinery at Mombasa, adjacent the Kipevu oil jetty, and Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd is seeking to raise $1.2 billion to cover the cost of that upgrade. The Kenya Pipeline Company is also planning to build a bigger and better oil pipeline for transporting oil to Nairobi and elsewhere in the country.