Kenya aims to complete $2.1b crude oil pipeline by 2021

Kenya will start a search next week for companies to design a crude oil export pipeline. The   $2.1 billion (Sh212 billion) pipeline should be completed by 2021, Energy and Petroleum Minister Charles Keter has said.

Tullow Oil and partner Africa Oil first struck oil in Lokichar in northwest Kenya in 2012 and Keter said the pipeline between Lokichar and Lamu on Kenya's coast would be 891 km long.

"In our estimation, if all goes well, the pipeline should (be ready) in the second quarter of 2021," he said. "The capex, I mean the cost, which can either come down or up, is $2.1 billion," Keter told reporters.

Uganda is also looking to build a pipeline to export its oil and originally favoured a route though Kenya. But last week, East African leaders said at a summit Uganda would build its pipeline through Tanzania rather than Kenya. France's Total, one of the oil firms developing Uganda's fields, had raised security concerns about the Kenyan route. Tullow Oil, with stakes in both countries, had backed the Kenyan route.

-Reuters