Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have invited bids to build a 784-kilometre pipeline in two phases that will transport refined petroleum products from western Kenya to regional markets. The project, part of east African regional integration plans, involves extending an existing products pipeline which now runs between the Kenyan port of Mombasa and the western town of Eldoret.
The extension will link that pipeline to Kampala and Kigali and help serve markets in Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Products now have to be trucked by road.
Uganda and Kenya have discovered commercial quantities of oil and plan to start production in about three years. Those finds are among a series of discoveries along Africa's eastern coast and Rift Valley which runs through Kenya and other states.
As well as exporting crude, Uganda plans to refine some oil, making products that could flow through the pipeline extension. Plans include modifying the existing pipeline, which pumps products from the coast inland, so products can flow both ways.
The tender, published in The Standard newspaper, said expressions of interest should be submitted by Sept. 30. It did not provide cost, but the price tag for a products pipeline between Eldoret and Kampala has previously been estimated at $300 million.
The existing products pipeline is owned and operated by the state-run Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC). The extension would be built in two phases, comprising a 350-km stretch between Eldoret and Kampala and a 434-km pipeline that would link the Ugandan capital to Kigali. Storage terminals will be constructed in Kampala, Mbarara and Kigali.
Separate to the products pipeline, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda invited bids in June for a consultant to oversee a feasibility study and initial design for a 1,300-kilometre oil export pipeline to the Kenyan coast.
