Energy Cabinet Secretary (CS) Opiyo Wandayi has said preparations are underway to expand the Kisumu Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC) depot to handle higher volumes.
This comes after the operationalisation of the Kisumu oil jetty which has increased the demand for petroleum products destined to Uganda and other neighbouring countries.
The proposed expansion, he said, will see the facility’s storage capacity doubled with the oil jetty assigned an independent unit to load vessels ferrying the commodities to Entebbe, Uganda.
“We are looking forward to expanding the infrastructure at the depot starting with the construction of new tanks to be able to accommodate more volumes,” he said.
The jetty which was constructed in 2018 and operationalised in 2022, he said, has so far evacuated 290 million litres of petroleum products from Kisumu to Entebbe through Lake Victoria.
This, he added, has removed hundreds of tracks from the road, saving the country huge sums of money spent on road maintenance besides guaranteeing safe transportation of the commodities.
The government, he said plans to optimise operations at the jetty with eyes on new markets in Bukoba and Mwanza in Tanzania as transportation of petroleum products through Lake Victoria gains momentum.
Speaking during an inspection tour of the facility, Wandayi said the expansion was among key priority areas for the ministry as the government moves to enhance trade with neighbouring countries.
Plans, he added, were underway to expand the pipeline to Kampala (Uganda) and Kigali (Rwanda) as Kenya eyes petroleum business across the East Africa region.
“We have a long-term plan to expand the pipeline from Eldoret to Kigali. We are in talks with our friends Rwanda to channel more of their volumes through Mombasa, Eldoret and Kisumu as we work on this new frontier,” he said.
The Ministry, he said has adopted a multi-prong approach in the transportation of petroleum products, with the Kisumu jetty set to play a critical role as the expansion of the pipeline goes on.
This, he said was a deliberate move to boost the capacity of KPC to generate more revenue on the petroleum value chain.
“When we build capacity for KPC we are enhancing efficiency in movement and storage which will go a long way in ensuring steady supply of the commodities,” he said. By Chris Mahandara/Kenya News Agency
