enya is hopeful that a route agreed upon by Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni will yield good result despite opposition from holders of blocks in the Albertine basin.

According to Martin Heya the commissioner of petroleum at the Ministry of Energy, Kenya is working on achieving various requirements such as guarantees to security, route optimization and financing set by the Ugandan government so as to enable the project to progress without delay.

He added that the push for the southern route through Tanzania follows a study by an operator namely Total E&P which did not involve the government; as the two governments had sought to measure the possibility of two routes both through Kenya one of which was through the Lokichar region.

“Kenya will have nothing to do with a route that does not go through its territory. We are however confident that the communiqué by both presidents had looked through all the other options and this was the best route,” Heya told Oilnews Kenya.

Doubts followed comments by Ernest Rubondo, the head of the petroleum directorate, Ministry of Energy & Mineral Development in Uganda who recently said that the route as declared by the two presidents was not final, as Uganda was still looking into a southern route through Tanzania that delineate the Lamu port and the LAPSSET project in general.

The 1518 kilometer heated oil export pipeline as agreed will have a capacity of  300,000 bo/d with two pumping stations in Uganda and three in Kenya. However other associated infrastructures include a 127000m3 storage at Hoima (Uganda), 63,000m3 at lokichar (Uganda) and a 190,785m3 storage facility in Lamu Kenya.