American industrial and energy conglomerate Honeywell Technologies has joined the Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote’s new Kenya refinery, with the task of providing engineering services, licensing, and equipment for the 700,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery.
Dangote and Kenya’s President William Ruto broke the ground for the USD 16 billion project in Kenya’s Lamu county this week.
Honeywell and Dangote worked together at his Nigerian refinery, where the company is helping with upgrades to double the plant’s capacity to 1.4 million bpd.
“Through our long-standing relationship with Dangote, we have developed proven large-train engineering designs that can be applied to the Kenya refinery to significantly reduce time-to-market,” Honeywell Technologies UOP President Rajesh Gattupalli said in a statement.
The refinery will supply diesel, petrol, and jet fuel to Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, with products also exported to countries across the continent.
Kenya is making a significant investment in the project, as it has the potential to reduce fuel costs in East Africa and conserve hard currency that is typically used to import refined products.
Dangote, often known as Africa’s richest man, has offered regional governments a combined 30% stake in the Kenyan refinery, which is scheduled to be completed in 2030.
While Honeywell will provide the technological support for the facility, Engineers India Limited will look after the project engineering part.
“The refinery, whose shares will eventually be listed on the Nairobi bourse, is the largest-ever foreign direct investment for Kenya, and it will boost the country’s annual gross domestic product by 12%,” Ruto said at the launch ceremony.
“It is an investment in energy security, industrialisation and regional integration,” the Kenyan President added further.
“The project will create energy self-sufficiency in a region stretching from Ethiopia to Mozambique by replacing imports of refined products,” Dangote said.
“We are breaking ground for a new chapter in Africa’s industrial journey to a brighter future,” he noted further.
Dangote and Ruto were joined by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, Benin’s President Romuald Wadagni, and Togo’s President Jean-Lucien Savi de Tove for the ceremony at the port of Lamu.
The new refinery’s strategic location at the Lamu County will also help the prospects of the strategically crucial port, situated along Kenya’s northern shoreline, which welcomed its first cargo ships in 2021.
The Ruto administration sees Lamu Port as central to Kenya’s bid to open a new transport corridor linking its vast northern region and neighbouring African countries to the sea.
As per David Ndii, Ruto’s chief economic adviser, the refinery is expected to boost Lamu Port’s transformation as the entry point of a new African transport corridor while addressing annual demand for petroleum products in the region, which has an estimated demand of 20 million to 30 million metric tons.
“The refinery will also aim to export jet fuel to the European and British markets,” Dangote said further.