The Kenya government has said it will construct a new jetty at the Mombasa port to handle refined and crude oil from large tankers.

The jetty near Dongo Kundu will handle tankers with a deadweight of up to 200,000 tonnes. The existing Kipevu oil terminal, which can handle vessels carrying up to 80,000 tonnes, will be linked to the new jetty via an undersea pipeline.

Kenya Ports Authority head of project development Dan Amadi said a contract for building the new terminal would be awarded later this year. He added that Danish engineering firm Niras, which designed the jetty at a cost of $1.7 million, will supervise the construction.

The Kipevu terminal, built in 1963, lacks capacity to meet East Africa’s demand for oil products currently 450 million litres a month. The new jetty also seeks to address safety concerns because the existing terminal is sandwiched between berths that handle container cargo.

326 million litres

A dozen companies from the 31 that tendered bids to construct the jetty are being considered for the job, which is estimated to cost $1.2 billion and to take 30 months to complete.

The ones in the running are Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corporation, China Gezhouuba Group, Boskalis Dredging & Marine Experts, China CAMC Engineering and Besix, CMR & Van Oord.

The new terminal will have a two-way crude oil pipeline linked to the Kipevu oil storage facility.

The facility will have space for 326 million litres of fuel but its operational capacity will be 269 million litres.

“A total of 4 berths have been provided for and three will be built in the first phase. The berths will have capacity to handle all petroleum products currently imported for the region as well as LPG,” Mr Amadi said.