Kenya amends conditions for pipeline tender following talks with Uganda
PHOTO | FILE Workers on a Kenya Pipeline Company extension project. The government has altered the terms and conditions of a tender for the design of a regional crude oil pipeline to factor in the interests of Uganda, which is a key partner in the project.
What you need to know:
- A joint statement released last week following a meeting between officials of the two governments also announced that the deadline for submitting bids for the tender had been extended by two weeks to August 8.
- The amended tender seeks to bring the six on board.
- Pipeline engineering experts welcomed the extension of the project saying the original project had substantially been changed.
The government has altered the terms and conditions of a tender for the design of a regional crude oil pipeline to factor in the interests of Uganda, which is a key partner in the project.
A joint statement released last week following a meeting between officials of the two governments also announced that the deadline for submitting bids for the tender had been extended by two weeks to August 8. This is the third time that the tender is being amended.
The project’s steering committee also agreed to separate the supervision aspects of the project from the implementation phase.
Once in place, the pipeline will connect the oil fields in Turkana, Kenya, and those in Hoima, Uganda to the Lamu Port ahead of production. It is hoped the pipeline will be extended to South Sudan.
The winning consultant is expected to give a comparative analysis of the chosen route and port of exit with respect to other identified routes and ports of exit in previous studies.
CRUDE OIL PIPELINE
The project will see the construction of a 1,300-kilometre crude oil pipeline, with a fibre-optic cable running alongside it from Hoima in Uganda and Lokichar in Turkana to the proposed refinery in Lamu.
Some 42 firms had by last week expressed interest in the tender for the joint project that is expected to be completed in 2018.
Already, six consortiums Tullow Oil/Africa Oil, who have submitted a design for the Lokichar-Lamu route, Toyota Tsusho (Hoima-Manda Bay, Lamu), Tullow/Total/CNOOC (Hoima-Lokichar-Lamu), Lapsset (Juba-Lokichar-Moyale-Lamu), Total (Hoima-Eldoret-Lamu/Mombasa) have submitted designs for the pipeline that connecting the oilfields in Uganda, South Sudan, and Kenya to the Lamu port.
The amended tender seeks to bring the six on board.
Pipeline engineering experts welcomed the extension of the project saying the original project had substantially been changed.
“The initial project with the supervision aspects was a very huge project. Change of addendum requires more time hence the extension,” said one of the bidders who did not wish to be named.
“We have written to express our concerns because the project has too many unknowns. The less the clarity, the higher the risk index and the price,” he added.
