Pictures From Ground Breaking Of Nigeria’s Dangote $16 billion East African Oil Refinery iI Kenya
Construction begins on Wednesday of a $16 billion Kenyan oil refinery aimed at lowering East Africa’s fuel costs and saving the region hard currency used to import refined products.
Aliko Dangote and Kenyan President William Ruto broke ground on the site, where the billionaire wants to replicate his group’s 700,000-barrel-per-day Nigerian refinery as countries including Kenya and Uganda look to start producing crude oil.
Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has offered regional governments a combined 30% stake in the Kenyan refinery, which is scheduled to be completed in 2030.
Dangote has awarded Engineers India Limited (ENGI.NS), opens new tab a $450 million project engineering contract while Honeywell Technologies (HON.O), opens new tab will provide technological support.
The refinery, whose shares will eventually be listed on the Nairobi bourse, is the largest-ever foreign direct investment for Kenya, and it will boost the country’s annual gross domestic product by 12%, Ruto said at the launch ceremony.
“It is an investment in energy security, industrialisation and regional integration,” he said.
The project will create energy self-sufficiency in a region stretching from Ethiopia to Mozambique, Dangote said, by replacing imports of refined products.
“We are breaking ground for a new chapter in Africa’s industrial journey to a brighter future,” he said.
CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT SPURS HOPE
Dangote and Ruto were joined by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, Benin’s President Romuald Wadagni and Togo’s President Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové for the ceremony at the port of Lamu, ringed by a row of excavators, graders, rollers and cranes.
“I am very hopeful when I see these machines lined up here because I know I have a chance to work and change my life from my menial jobs now to become a machine operator which is what I’m trained to do,” said local resident Evans Hundo.
Situated along Kenya’s northern shoreline, Lamu Port, which welcomed its first cargo ships in 2021, is central to Kenya’s bid to open a new transport corridor linking its vast northern region and neighbouring countries to the sea.
The refinery is expected to boost that initiative, while addressing annual demand for petroleum products in the region which Ruto’s chief economic adviser, David Ndii, said is estimated at 20 million to 30 million metric tons.
Meeting that demand would require capacity of more than 1 million bpd, said a financier involved in African refineries.
East Africa has been hit hard by surging fuel prices resulting from the Iran war, sparking deadly protests in countries such as Kenya over rising pump prices.
The refinery will also aim to export jet fuel to the European and British markets, Dangote said.
