Kenya is preparing to begin construction of the planned Lamu refinery being developed by Dangote Group, with President William Ruto confirming September 30 as the date for the project’s groundbreaking.
The proposed refinery is expected to process up to 700,000 barrels of crude oil daily, according to details disclosed during Ruto’s visit to Nigeria’s Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
Dangote said the Kenyan facility would be larger in some respects than the Lagos refinery and would have a 1,000MW power-generation plant.
About 500MW of the electricity generated is expected to be made available to Kenya.
The project will also include heavier processing equipment and a coker, which Dangote said was not part of the Nigerian facility.
Ruto said his government had secured land for the project and was putting other necessary arrangements in place to avoid administrative delays.
The Kenyan president said the refinery could create opportunities across engineering, chemical processing, mechanical engineering and other areas of the economy.