This follows the completion of an offloading facility, storage tanks and a barge that will be used to move fuel between Kenya and Uganda, through Lake Victoria.
Kenya completed the Kisumu Jetty in 2018 but could not put the facility to use for lack of a receiving facility in Uganda.
The jetty whose construction began in June 2017 has been idle since the contactor, Southern Engineering Company (SECO), handed over the facility to Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC).
Mahathi Infra Uganda Limited yesterday said delays had been caused by a lack of road infrastructure from Bukasa Inland Port and the recent rising of Lake Victoria waters, which led to the closure of the construction site.
Road construction was mainly affected by delays in the compensation process, the contractor said.
It was also delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic where at least 164 of its 300 experts on-site contracted the virus, stalling the project’s construction.
“I can now say we have completed the project, done tests and are ready to operate. We expect to pick the first consignment from Kisumu later this month,” Mahathi Infra (Uganda) Limited chairman George Mukula told the Star on the telephone.
The jetty runs about 270 metres into the lake, has storage tanks with the capacity of 70 million litres and the first of the planned six barges which have a carrying capacity of 4.5 million litres.
One barge is the equivalent of 60 oil tankers moving fuel by road.
The latest developments now creates a complete marine fuel transportation system between Kenya and Uganda, with supplies targeted for the neighbouring country and beyond.
“We expect the use of the lake facilities and water transport will reduce the cost of transporting fuel by about 50 per cent,” Mukula said.
It will take 14 hours to move products from Kisumu to Uganda, he noted, doing away with frequent border delays.
The company has already struck a deal with Total while talks are on with 19 other Oil Marketing Companies for the use of the Kisumu facility and its facility in Uganda.
The project was partly funded by Equity Bank.
Uganda is also expected to put up another facility in Jinja by the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and One Petroleum.
The coming into operation of the KOJ is expected to help Kenya recapture the petroleum export market lost to Tanzania in recent times.
While it has been serving the Ugandan market through the Kisumu and Eldoret depots, Kenya Pipeline has lost about 20 per cent of its export business in the last four years, with competition remaining high from the Central Corridor connecting landlocked countries to the Port of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).
Eldoret and Kisumu depots have storage capacities of 48 million litres and 45 million litres, respectively.
Kenya will be targeting Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern DRC and parts of Tanzania.
Uganda however remains Kenya’s top export market for imported oil products (super petrol, diesel, kerosene and Jet A 1-aviation fuel).
