Kenya to build oil pipeline to Tanzania

The pipeline will link Nairobi to Arusha, with supplies being pumped from a refinery to be built in Isiolo.

Kenya plans to construct a pipeline to supply oil to Tanzania once it starts commercial exploitation of reserves recently discovered in Turkana County.

Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi said the pipeline would link Nairobi to Arusha, with supplies being pumped from a refinery to be built in Isiolo. A new pipeline will also be built to link the refinery in Isiolo to Nakuru for onward distribution of products to Eldoret and other parts of western Kenya and northern Uganda.
Another pipeline would be constructed to connect the refinery to Nairobi.

“We shall talk to the government of Tanzania to see how we can supply them through a pipeline to Arusha,” Mr Murungi told a media briefing in Nairobi on Friday after a meeting with South Sudan officials.

The officials were in Nairobi to review progress on a planned oil pipeline to link the port of Lamu and oilfields in South Sudan—the newly independent country.

Tanzania has recently struck huge reserves of natural gas but is yet to find oil. Kenya, however, has found large reserves of oil in Turkana’s Ngamia-1 well although tests are ongoing to establish its commercial viability.

The minister said the government would focus on satisfying demand in Kenya and the region through products refined at the facility planned for Isiolo.

Isiolo refinery
“We hope to make Isiolo a hub for refined products both from Kenya and South Sudan. Our prime concern will be to satisfy the domestic needs and those of the region. Any excesses will be pumped and exported through the port of Lamu,” he said.

Energy permanent secretary Patrick Nyoike said feasibility on the planned refinery in Isiolo would commence soon.

“We are looking at a refinery with a capacity of processing a minimum 100,000 barrels a day because any capacity below that would not be economically viable,” he said.