Infrastructure
Workers Put the Final Touches on New Kipevu Oil Terminal
The new oil terminal will handle bigger volumes of fuel products.
China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) is putting the finishing touches on the New Kipevu Oil Terminal in Mombasa – with the facility set for a dry run test in March.
The Sh40 billion terminal will enable the port of Mombasa to handle bigger volumes of fuel products while breathing new life into a facility that has existed for over 50 years.
Speaking during an inspection tour of the project on Thursday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said the project is the largest of its kind in Africa, with a capacity to handle up to four extra-large vessels carrying all categories of petroleum products.
The existing terminal can only handle a single medium-sized vessel at a time.
“This project is a game-changer because it will help the country salvage Sh2 billion lost from demurrage due to long queues of vessels waiting to dock,” President Kenyatta said.
Work on the Kipevu Oil Terminal project has been underway since February 2019 as the government seeks to supplement the two existing facilities at Shimanzi and the old Kipevu terminal, which are too small to handle large quantities of imported oil and gas.
On completion, the new oil terminal will have four berths capable of handling the importation and exportation of crude oil, heavy fuel oil, aviation fuel, petrol, and diesel.
The New Kipevu Oil Terminal will handle up to four vessels with a Dead Weight Tonnage (DWT) of 200,000 and an LPG line that is hoped to stabilise gas supply in the country.
The facility, which is fully financed by the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), is one offshore island terminal with four berths – 770 metres long – and one workboat wharf for landing.
It will have undersea and on-land pipelines that will connect it to Kipevu storage facilities.
The existing terminal, which handles 90% of petroleum products into Kenya and in transit to Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, can only manage 35,000 tonnes of cargo at a time.
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Construction of the terminal was scheduled to end by August 2021 but this has been derailed by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 – pushing the timeline to March.
“Delivery of material used in the construction was affected and the site was closed for several weeks when the pandemic struck. We are however making progress,” KPA said in May 2021.
Kipevu Oil Terminal scandal
The project has had its share of troubles.
In September 2019, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) summoned top officials at KPA who had allegedly inflated the cost of the project by Sh28 billion.
People familiar with the matter said the project was initially estimated to cost Sh12 billion, which was later raised to Sh25 billion and then Sh40 billion.
At the centre of the probe was the award of the construction tender to CCCC which had not fulfilled the conditions set in the KPA’s bid document.
Sources at the EACC told the media that investigations revealed that the cost was inflated threefold and designed to steal taxpayer money.
High-profile arrests were made and several cases are still pending in court.
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