Kenya plans to complete building oil pipeline by 2021

Kenya said on Friday its crude oil pipeline will be completed by the second quarter of 2021.

Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum Charles Keter told a media briefing in Nairobi that studies on a detailed design on the pipeline route will begin in a few weeks.

"Thereafter an environmental impact assessment report will be done and then actual construction will commence," Keter said.

The pipeline will run from the oil fields in Lokichar basin to the port of Lamu, a distance of 891 kilometres.

Keter said earlier studies indicated that the pipeline will cost 2.1 billion U.S. dollars for a 28 inch pipeline.

"This size of pipeline will be ideal to evacuate 300,000 barrels of oil per day. However we may decide to construct a 24 inch pipeline that can transport 200,000 barrels of oil per day," he added.

Tullow Oil, which has made oil discoveries in Kenya, recently increased the amount of oil resources from 600 million barrels to 750 million barrels.

The CS said there are further oil exploration activities in the countries and so oil to be evacuated daily may vary in future.

Kenya's decision to build its own crude oil pipeline comes after Uganda decided to build its pipeline jointly with Tanzania. Keter said that Kenya as a country is ready to build its own oil pipeline.

"We shall complete the upgrading of the existing 20 inch Nairobi to Mombasa pipeline in September." he said. The joint Kenya-Uganda oil pipeline would have cost approximately 4.2 billion dollars. Endit