Heavy machinery and construction materials for Aliko Dangote’s planned $16 billion (about Sh2 trillion) refinery in Lamu have arrived at Lamu Port, days before President William Ruto is expected to lead the project’s groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday.
The vessel MV Da Yang docked at the port on Saturday carrying 2,930.295 tonnes of construction equipment for the proposed refinery, marking a major step in preparations for the start of construction. The shipment is the first cargo linked to the project to arrive at Lamu.
Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Managing Director William Kipkemboi Ruto received the vessel, which came from China, and presented its master, Captain Wang Shengli, with a certificate of first call and a plaque.
“The vessel comes from China. This is the first caller vessel,” he said. KPA Lamu Port General Manager Abdulaziz Mzee said the refinery would significantly increase business at the port by driving up vessel traffic and revenue once operations begin.
“The Dangote refinery will heavily boost business by forcing a continuous stream of Very Large Crude Carriers and cargo ships to dock, unload crude oil, and reload refined products. That business vessel call-in will increase and that means revenue will be streaming as well,” he said.
Captain Ruto said the arrival demonstrated the port’s readiness to handle cargo associated with the refinery and future developments under the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) Corridor.
The proposed Dangote East Africa Refinery is expected to have a processing capacity of up to 700,000 barrels of oil per day, making it one of the largest industrial investments planned for the region. It will be built within the Lapsset precincts in Lamu and is expected to be completed by 2030.
President Ruto has said the refinery will strengthen fuel reliability and security, support industrialisation and create about 60,000 jobs.
“The refinery, whose construction we will launch in Kenya next week (this week), will be bigger. It will transform the petroleum sector in our country and region, providing fuel reliability and security, scaling up industrialisation and creating 60,000 jobs.”
The President also said the project would generate opportunities beyond fuel production, including the emergence of industries producing fertilisers, chemicals and packaging.
“We are not looking at this as just a refinery. We are looking at a refinery that is going to elevate our industrial scale. We are also looking at the opportunities that will come with this, especially in improving our human capital in engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and the rest. We are looking at the businesses, jobs and opportunities that will benefit,” Dr Ruto said.
The President made the remarks after touring Dangote’s existing refinery in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria, last week. During the visit, he said land for the Lamu project had been secured and that the Government was working to complete the other requirements needed for construction.
The visit followed discussions in New York involving President Ruto, Dangote and Africa Finance Corporation chief executive Samaila Zubairu on financing and preparations for the project. Ruto has said the Lamu refinery would be a transformative investment for Kenya’s energy and industrial sectors.
Dangote has said the Lamu complex will include a power plant with a capacity of about 1,000 megawatts, fuelled by petroleum coke, with some of the electricity potentially sold to the Kenyan Government. He has also said some of the equipment to be installed in Lamu would be heavier than that used at the Lekki refinery.
“The refinery is like the gate,” Dangote said, describing the facility as a starting point for attracting additional investors and industries.
The refinery could draw crude from Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda, with additional supplies potentially coming from other countries and regions, including the Middle East, through Lamu Port.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi has said Kenya is ready to begin extracting crude from the South Lokichar oil fields in Turkana County. He said production was expected to begin before the end of the year. “The Kenyan oil production is supposed to commence in earnest before December this year in the South Lokichar basin,” Mr Wandayi said.
The development of the refinery could run alongside efforts to develop the Lokichar-to-Lamu crude oil pipeline. President Ruto has previously said construction of the refinery and pipeline could proceed concurrently, although initial crude production from Lokichar is expected to be between 20,000 and 50,000 barrels per day.
Gulf Energy E&P BV SEZ is preparing to begin the first phase of its South Lokichar development project. On Friday, the company’s chief executive officer Paul Limoh said a drilling rig had arrived at the Port of Mombasa ahead of the planned start of operations.
The integrated onshore drilling rig was transported from Duqm Port in Oman, with the company planning to begin the first phase of its $6 billion (Sh774 billion) crude oil production project on November 1.
“All workstreams at Gulf Energy E&P BV SEZ are running to a tight project management schedule and the project remains on course for First Oil production in December 2026,” Mr Limoh said.
The first phase is expected to produce 20,000 barrels per day before output rises to 50,000 barrels per day in the second phase. Initially, the crude will be transported by road for storage at the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited facilities in Changamwe.
The Lapsset Master Plan provides for crude oil pipelines from South Sudan and Lokichar to Lamu, although those plans remain long-term projects. This could leave the refinery dependent on imported crude from outside the region, particularly as Uganda’s crude is currently transported to Tanzania through the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
Lamu’s role Lamu Port is expected to play a central role in supplying and servicing the refinery once it becomes operational. The port, which is deeper than Mombasa, is intended to support the movement of petroleum cargo as well as other industrial activity along the Lapsset Corridor.
The Lapsset Master Plan had already identified Lamu as a location for oil storage and refining infrastructure, with 53 hectares reserved for oil tank storage and a refinery with a planned capacity of 125,000 barrels per day. The capacity outlined in the Master Plan is substantially below Dangote’s proposed 700,000-barrel-a-day facility.
The Master Plan provides for crude and product tank farms, primary and secondary processing units, administrative facilities and a construction yard. It also identifies land near the southern edge of Lamu Port for oil storage and a future refinery.
The wider Lapsset plan identified oil, gas and minerals as priority sectors, with Lamu selected partly because of available land and the need to ease pressure on Mombasa Port. The plan also envisaged heavy industries and oil storage and loading facilities close to the port.
KPA has said Lamu Port has recently experienced increased cargo volumes and larger vessels, and that the refinery could further accelerate activity at the facility. Captain William Ruto said the refinery could help unlock the wider potential of Lamu Port and the Lapsset Corridor.
The scale of the project received another indication last week after Dangote Group signed a contract worth more than $450 million (about Sh58.1 billion) with India’s Engineers India Limited (EIL). EIL will provide project management, engineering, procurement and construction management consultancy services for the planned refinery and petrochemical complex.
The Indian government-owned engineering consultancy announced the agreement in New Delhi last Tuesday, saying it would draw on its previous work with Dangote on the group’s 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery and petrochemical complex at the Lekki Free Zone in Nigeria.
“Driven by this proven track record of execution leadership, EIL is proud to extend this transformative partnership to Dangote’s upcoming Greenfield Refinery and Petrochemical Plant in Kenya,” the company said.
EIL’s mandate covers project management as well as engineering, procurement and construction management services. The Kenyan facility is being planned as a combined refinery and petrochemical complex, linking fuel production with downstream industrial processing.
The project is part of Dangote Group’s wider expansion across Africa. In September, Dangote Group chairman Aliko Dangote said plans to expand into Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Namibia and other African countries remained viable.
At the Dangote Petroleum and Petrochemicals EFZ IPO signing on September 7, Dangote said the Group’s plans included a fertiliser plant in Ethiopia, the Lamu refinery in Kenya, and cement, fertiliser, port and energy projects in Tanzania.
The group is seeking to finance the Lamu refinery through internal cash flow, bonds and an initial public offering. Dangote made the comments after the company offered 4.1 billion ordinary shares through the Nigerian Exchange Limited, seeking to raise about $1.63 billion (Sh210.3 billion).
With the Lamu refinery estimated at about $16 billion, the project represents a major expansion of Dangote’s refining operations beyond West Africa. The arrival of the first machinery at Lamu Port now brings the project closer to the planned groundbreaking, providing the first visible indication of construction activity ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony.
