KPC to expand Kisumu oil depot on increased demand

Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi has announced plans to expand the Kenya Pipeline Company’s (KPC) Kisumu depot to accommodate higher volumes of petroleum products.

This comes after the operationalization of the Kisumu oil jetty which has increased the demand for petroleum products destined to Uganda and other neighboring 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.

The CS was speaking during an inspection tour of the Kisumu oil jetty. Wandayi said the expansion was among key priority areas for the ministry as the government moves to enhance trade with neighbouring countries.

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

energy and petroleum cabinet secretary opiyo wandayi

The Kisumu depot is one of 8 oil storage facilities that are owned by KPC with a total storage capacity of 884 million liters. The Kipevu depot in Mombasa is the largest with a capacity of 326 million liters followed by the Nairobi terminal depot which can store 233 million liters of fuel.

The other storage facilities are Moi Airport in Mombasa (7 million liters), Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited (KPRL) (140 million liters), Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) (54 million liters), Nakuru (31 million liters), Eldoret (48 million liters) and Kisumu (45 million liters).

Wandayi said theKisumu jetty, which was constructed in 2018 and operationalized in 2022, has so far evacuated 290 million liters 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 optimize operations at the depot with eyes on new markets in Bukoba and Mwanza in Tanzania as transportation of petroleum products through Lake Victoria gains momentum.

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

energy and petroleum cabinet secretary opiyo wandayi

The Ministry, said Wandayi, 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.

“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.

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