A firm based at a highly secretive island will get the lion’s share in Kenya’s oil transportation deal

david nganga

June 6, 2018 4:41 PM

The firm will grab the biggest chunk of the Sh1.5 billion budgeted for transporters of the oil

Primefuels Holdings Ltd, based in the highly secretive Guernsey Channel Islands, has leased the equipment for trucking of crude from the Turkana oil fields.

Its local subsidiary, Primefuels Kenya Ltd will take the biggest chunk of the money set aside to pay the transporters who include Nairobi-based Multiple Hauliers and Oilfield Movers.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday flagged off four of the 110 insulated containers to be supplied by Primefuels Kenya for the journey to the coastal city of Mombasa for storage.

Viability

Each of the insulated containers has the capacity to carry 150 barrels, which is equivalent to about 24,000 litres.

Initial projections indicate 2,000 barrels will be trucked from the oil fields to the storage tanks daily, before doubling to full capacity over time.

Industry experts have however questioned the viability of the venture under the Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS), given that transporting 2,000 barrels of crude oil would require at least 20 trucks per day to ferry the crude oil to Mombasa for two months.

This as opposed to the planned pipeline transport which will move up to 120, 000 barrels of crude per day — making it a faster and cheaper business model.

The government has however defended the programme saying it is a worthy experiment to gauge how the market will price Kenyan oil.

david nganga