-The new oil terminal will have four berths and sub-sea (submerged) pipelines for five different petroleum products.
-The construction work, which began in February 2019, was slightly slowed down when Covid-19 struck the country in March last year.
The new Sh40 billion Kipevu Oil Terminal at the Port of Mombasa is now at 84 percent complete, Kenya Ports Authority management has said.
The construction work, which began in February 2019, was slightly slowed down when Covid-19 struck the country in March last year.
The project, which is being undertaken by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), had a timeline of 30 months. It was scheduled to be completed by August 1 this year, but it will fully be ready by the end of the year.
On April 1, KPA said in a statement that the relocation of the Kipevi Oil Terminal to a new site was buoyed by the growth of the oil and gas industry in the country.
“The construction of the new upgraded modern oil terminal is expected to have a capacity to accommodate four vessels of up to 200,000 DWT (Deadweight tonnage),” said KPA.
The new oil terminal will have four berths and sub-sea (submerged) pipelines for five different petroleum products; crude oil, heavy fuel oil and three types of white oil products (DPK-aviation fuel, AGO-Diesel and PMS-Petrol).
It is being constructed directly opposite the second container terminal at the port of Mombasa near Dongo Kundu.
It will replace the current 50-year-old terminal that currently stands there. It is being funded by KPA at a cost of $385m and built by the China Communications Construction Company.
It will have both subsea and land-based pipelines connecting it to the storage facilities in Kipevu, and the capacity to handle five different fuel products. These include crude oil, heavy fuel oil and three types of white oil products (DPK-aviation fuel, AGO-Diesel and PMS-Petrol).
“The new project is 84 percent complete and is expected to be ready by the end of the year,” said the statement by KPA.
Last September, KPA acting managing director Engineer Rashid Salim said the project was at 63.3 per cent, after a 19-month period.
From September to April this year, the project, which is fully funded by the KPA, has gone up by only 20.7 percent.
Last year, Salim told the Star, “We experienced some delays because of Covid-19; however, we are now back on track and we expect to finish the construction works within the period that was set.”
The construction work, which was scheduled to be completed by August this year, was slowed down after materials became inadequate and some of the older staff had to go home because of Covid-19.
“Some of the older engineers had to stay at home because of the threat of the Covid-19,” said Salim.
Materials for the project are sourced locally from Kilifi County.
Last year, Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi shut down all the quarries in Kilifi after the cases of Covid-19 were rampant in the region. This hampered the progress of the project at KPA.
In December 2020, the project was at 40 percent, just after eleven months.
From January last year to March this year, a span of 15 months, the project has gone up by 44 percent.
The new Kipevu Oil Terminal, which is being constructed directly opposite the second container terminal at the port of Mombasa near Dongo Kundu, will replace the current 50-year-old terminal.