Cs Adan Mohammed.[Photo/KenyaToday]
Talks on the building of a new refinery in either Lamu or Mombasa have started, following the shutdown of an old plant in 2013, Industrialisation secretary Adan Mohamed has said.
East Africa’s only refinery, the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd (KPRL), was officially shut down in September 2013.
Mr Mohamed on Sunday said the issue of the old KPRL is long gone due to its inefficiencies.
He, however, confirmed discussions on the location for the planned new refinery is ongoing.
“The business case to revive a very old facility versus setting up a new one, it makes more sense to set up a new one.'Crude volumes'
"That consideration is also dependent on the volume of crude we are able to generate and how it can be moved from the north to where the refinery is, which is probably going to be in either Lamu or Mombasa,” Mr Mohamed added.
In 2016, industry estimates showed that it would cost $1.9 billion to refurbish the Mombasa refinery which has a capacity of cleaning up to 80,000 barrels of crude oil daily.