•According to KPC managing director Joe Sang, the expanded laboratory capacity will cut down jet fuel testing time by more than 17 hours.
•This will ensure local and international flights in Kenya experience minimal disruption, benefiting from a reliable supply of safe and ample jet fuel.
Airline fuel know as Jet A-1 testing will now be conducted across all Kenya Pipeline laboratories, the company has said.
This follows the certification of the Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, and Kisumu labs by the International Standard Organisation (ISO).
KPC laboratories received their second re-accreditation of the ISO 17025:2017 standard, a development set to significantly reduce the turnaround time for testing jet A-1 fuel.
This improvement positions Kenya as a crucial transport hub in the region.
According to KPC managing director Joe Sang, the expanded laboratory capacity will cut down jet fuel testing time by more than 17 hours.
“We can now complete Jet A-1 fuel testing in six hours, down from the previous 24 hours required when tests were limited to the Nairobi laboratory," Sang said in a statement.
This advancement, he added, will ensure local and international flights in Kenya experience minimal disruption, benefiting from a reliable supply of safe and ample jet fuel.
Moreover, certifying all seven laboratories to test jet A-1 fuel will save on sample transportation costs and eliminate typical risks of delays and losses.
The re-accreditation also enables KPC's various laboratories to offer testing services for petroleum products to third-party entities, including Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
This commercialisation of labs in Pump Station (PS) 10 (Industrial Area, Nairobi), PS 01 (Changamwe, Mombasa), PS 14 (Kipevu, Mombasa), PS 15 (KPRL, Mombasa), PS 25 (Nakuru), PS 27 (Eldoret), and PS 28 (Kisumu), means customers no longer have to travel to the Nairobi lab (PS 10), as they now have access to competent and accredited facilities closer to home.
Kenya Accreditation Service (Kenas) oversaw the accreditation.
Kenas chief executive Martin Chesire said the re-accreditation process involved a thorough evaluation of KPC’s laboratory facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and data management practices, ensuring compliance with the stringent requirements of the ISO standard.
The accreditation of all seven of KPC’s Laboratories now makes it the largest multi-site accredited laboratory in Eastern Africa.
"We expect that a sample tested in any of the labs will give the same result across all seven labs,” Chesire noted.
He commended Kenya Pipeline Company's commitment to maintaining the highest standards in laboratory testing, positioning them as a crucial player in the energy sector.
The globally recognised ISO 17025:2017 certification enhances KPC’s laboratory practice capabilities on an international scale.
Compliance with the standard ensures the timely identification and resolution of potential risks and errors, minimising the chances of inaccurate results and mitigating operational risks.
KPC acquired the initial ISO 17025:2005 accreditation - for the PS 10 (Nairobi) laboratory - on July 8, 2016.
The standard was scheduled to expire on July 7, 2019 but was revised midstream, necessitating accredited laboratories to transition to the new standard - ISO /IEC 17025:2017.
ISO/IEC 17025:2017 is an internationally accepted quality standard for testing and calibration laboratories.
The standard specifies general requirements for competence to carry out tests and calibrations.
The standard is risk-based and differs from the previous ISO/IEC 17025:2005 that focused on continual improvement of management systems and customer service.