The main civil works for the new Sh48 billion Mombasa-Nairobi pipeline is now 95 per cent complete, Kenya Pipeline Company has said.

KPC Managing Director Joe Sang yesterday said the project, called Line 5, will be commissioned by December this year.

The final testing being undertaken on the project ahead of the commissioning will include hydro-testing, station mechanical and electrical works.

Sang’ said Line 5 will have the capacity to pump 1,000 cubic litres ( 1 million litres) of oil per hour from Mombasa to Nairobi.

Currently, KPC pumps 80 per cent of all imported oil products in the country with the remaining 20 per cent being transported by road.

“This new Line 5 project will be running concurrently with the Old Line 1, which was put up in 1978. This therefore means that we will eliminate transportation of oil products by road in Kenya,” said Sang.

Sang said Kenya lost several East and Central African markets after Line 1 became small and could not adequately supply the region.

Last financial year, KPC transported 6.3 billion litres of oil from Mombasa through line 1. Sang’ said they expect to transport millions of litres once the new Line 5 is commissioned.

At the same, he said they are putting up additional four-tank storage facility in Nairobi with a capacity of 133 million litres.

Currently, KPC has a storage facility of 100 million litres in Nairobi.

“We will have a total storage facility of 233 million litres. Nairobi consumes about 60 per cent of the oil products imported in Kenya,” said the MD.

KPC said along the 450km-long Line 5, they will also install four pumps in Changamwe, Maungu, Mtito Andei and Sultan Hamud. Two booster pumps will be installed at Kipevu inside the port of Mombasa. The construction of Line 5, which is 20 inch diameter pipeline, started in 2014.

The line has been rocked by delays caused by multiple design revisions which prompted procurement hitches, according to the contractor, Zakhem International Construction Limited.

Zakhem is responsible for procurement, construction and commissioning.

Kenya lost a huge marketshare to Tanzania, which now supplies Rwanda and Burundi.

KPC said they want to recover these markets. Kenya supplies Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

Source: The Star

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