The Kenyan government has embarked on a multi-million shillings project to extend its oil pipeline to Kampala in Uganda, official sources said.
The pipeline, from the country's oil refineries in Mombasa, pumps petrol and other petroleum products to inland depots located in Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, and Eldoret.
The pipeline is managed by the state-owned Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) which Thursday said the pipeline extension project would tap the market in the Great Lakes Region.
KPC also said that the extension would also help cut costs in the road and rail transportation of the commodity as transporters as far away as Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo are forced to drive to the inland depots to collect the product, hence incurring heavy costs.
KPC Managing Director, Linus Cheruiyot, said the project will initially cost six billion shillings (1 USD = 78 shillings).
He noted that a possible export market for KPC products requires over two billion litres a day.
But presently, he said the company was supplying 2.2 billion litres of fuel to the local market.
Cheruiyot added that other KPC projects include putting up four additional fuel tanks at Mombasa to help increase fuel capacity by 40 percent, and the construction of two tanks for jet fuel storage in Western Kenya, as part of the company's move to reduce handling and maintenance costs.
Cheruiyot, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the continued theft of KPC installations, saying Nairobi and Western Kenya were the main areas faced with the problem.
allafrica.com
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Kenya to Extend Oil Pipeline to Uganda
The Kenyan government has embarked on a multi-million...