Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) is set to commence construction of Kisumu oil jetty in March 2017 to facilitate safe transportation of petroleum product through Lake Victoria to the neighbouring countries.
The construction of the jetty is expected to take 6 months and will increase KPC’s competitive edge in the region as the leading oil transporter.
KPC on Wednesday placed a notice in the dailies inviting companies to tender for construction of Kisumu oil jetty.
The Jetty is expected to boost throughput in Kisumu by 1 million litres a year in phase 1 and up to 3 million litres per year by 2028.
KPC’s Managing Director, Joe Sang said the Sinendet-Kisumu Pipeline (Line 6) operationalized in April 2016 now ensures ample petroleum product volumes is available in the Western Kenya region and the export market of Uganda, Eastern DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, and Northern Tanzania.
“Construction of the Jetty is now commercially feasible following completion of Line 6 which has increased product flow to Kisumu depot by 350,000 litres per hour from the previous 110,000 litres per hour,” said Sang.
Sang said the new line will turn Kisumu into a focal point of oil and gas commerce in the region through safe transportation of fuel across the lake using properly certified barges and ships.
“The Target market is around the lake and expanding the export market into Uganda and mines in northern Tanzania. The jetty will also create integrated marine fuel transportation in the region making it more efficient and commercially viable and reduce transportation costs for the oil marketing companies,” said Sang.
The additional petroleum product will also enhance optimization of tank utilization in Kisumu, which previously stood at 30 percent. The full tank capacity for the port town is 39 million litres. The annual demand for petroleum products in western Kenya is 1.1 billion litres whereas the regional demand stands at 3.3 billion litres.
Line 6 is a Kshs 5.7 billion 122km 10-inch diameter pipeline parallel to an existing 6-inch diameter pipeline from Sinendet to Kisumu (Line 3) expected to enhance petroleum product availability in the Western Kenya and the export market (Uganda, Eastern DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Northern Tanzania).
Sang said the new line has ended fuel shortages in Western Kenya with sufficient supplies to the region and to the neighbouring countries.
“The new line will therefore enable KPC serve not just western Kenya region, but also the neighbouring countries,” said Sang.
KPC is currently undertaking a number of large scale energy infrastructure projects aimed at tapping growth opportunities in the regional gas sector.
The company is currently constructing the Mombasa-Nairobi Pipeline replacement Project (Line 5) which is scheduled to be completed this year.
The firm is also establishing a new state of the art loading facilities in Eldoret and new tanks in Nairobi Terminal which will ensure provision of sufficient capacity for receipt of higher volumes of products expected once the Mombasa – Nairobi pipeline is replaced.