Workers put final touches on the Western Kenya Pipeline Extension
Project before it is laid down at Cheplaskei in Eldoret Town on
September 15, 2010. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The oil transport and management agency has completed the
122-kilometre Nakuru-Kisumu pipeline that will increase supply of the
product to western Kenya and the entire East African region.
The
line, which was handed over to Kenya Pipeline Company on Friday by the
contractor, now supplies 39 million litres to Kisumu depot, daily up
from 12 million.
Mr Jason Nyantino,
communications manager at the company said the new pipeline would end
regular shortage of the product in Kisumu due to limitations of the old
six inch diameter line laid in 1992.
“The new
line is a 10-inch pipeline running from Sinendet in Nakuru County to
Kisumu. It is operating simultaneously with the existing parallel one to
push huge volumes of product to the region,” he said at the site during
the handing over.
Kisumu alone receives 60 per
cent of the country’s petroleum products supplied to not only the
western region but also to East African countries including parts of
Tanzania, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan.
However, constant shortage had forced some dealers to source it from as far as Eldoret and Nakuru depots.
The new pipe will now reduce congestion of trucks and save the roads from constant wear and tear.
Mr
Nyantino said since the product will be closer to its market, there was
a possibility that cost of fuel would slightly come down.
“As
much as it is not within our mandate to regulate oil prices, the new
project may bring down cost of fuel in the region because one of the
factors that Energy Regulatory Commission uses to determine pricing is
cost of transport which will now be lower,” he said.
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