By JOE OMBUOR
A regional investor with interests spanning the East African and Southern Sudan is set to ease the distribution and transportation of fuel in Nairobi and its environs once the new storage facility is complete.
Nairobi accounts for 50-60 per cent of fuel consumption in the country.
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| The storage facility at Milili in Makueni County is 40 per cent complete. [JOE OMBUOR: STANDARD] |
Petrocity Energy Kenya Limited, is putting up a storage and loading facilities at Malili near Makueni, 70 kilometres south of Nairobi.
Petro City Director Mr Harish Asodia says the facility currently under construction by Comacon Limited is 40 per cent complete. It is expected to be operational by around October at a cost of Sh1.5 billion, thus reducing damage to the road to Mombasa.
Capacity
The facility will comprise six storage tanks for oil with a capacity of 40 million litres of petroleum products.
Asodia says the latest technology and safety standards currently missing at the Nairobi terminals will be incorporated at Malili, where virtually all operations will be automated and run from a central control room fitted with CCTV cameras, graphics and other modern communications equipment.
“Efficiency is our hallmark. With ample track parking space and fast loading mechanisms, transporters will cut down on their costs and pass the benefits to consumers with a positive multiple effect down to Wanjiku,” he says.
Demurrage costs
“Currently, oil importing companies are paying demurrages at the rate of Sh20, 000 per day to shipping companies due to long delays in offloading at the port of Mombasa. Our storage space will help reduce the delay, cutting expenses for importers who in turn will pass the advantage to consumers.
Asodia observes that ships have been taking 20 to 30 days to offload their consignments at the port because the batch in Nairobi is not moving fast enough to create room in the Kenya Pipeline tanks in Mombasa. “Our facility will more than halve the waiting time at the port. We have the capacity to take a whole ship at ago as we can load four million litres of fuel per day”, he says.
