Kenya, Rwande fuel deal ready
By Our reporter
MOMBASA – The first bulk fuel cargo under a Rwanda Oman government to government deal is set to arrive at Mombasa’s Kipevu Oil Terminal 2, opening a new supply route for the landlocked country
Rwanda’s first bulk fuel cargo under a government-to-government (G-to-G) supply deal with the Sultanate of Oman is due at the Port of Mombasa on Tuesday.
Anthony Kitimo reported that the tanker MT Sea Wolf will discharge at Kipevu Oil Terminal 2. That landing is the start of a new official supply route for the landlocked country through Kenya.
Kenya and Rwanda signed a memorandum of understanding and two implementing agreements in June. The papers cover importation, transport and storage of refined petroleum products through Kenya, giving Rwanda access to Mombasa and the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) system under a government-backed frame.
OQ Trading, the trading arm of the Omani state energy group, will supply the fuel. The company is wholly owned by the Omani government, was formed in 2006 and is based in Muscat.
The volumes, if they hold, are large. Rwanda’s petroleum imports through the Northern Corridor are expected to rise from about 42,000 cubic metres in 2025 to more than 500,000 cubic metres a year. That is more than a tenfold jump.
Those extra litres would mean work for the port, KPC, transporters, storage operators and other firms along the corridor. The Nation account presents that as the commercial point of the call.
Rwanda has long leaned on the Central Corridor through Tanzania. Kitimo wrote that most of its fuel still comes through Dar es Salaam, with about 30 per cent moving through Kenyan oil marketers. Tuesday’s ship is a test of whether that mix can shift.
KPC runs a 1,342-kilometre pipeline linking Mombasa with Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu. The network is described as able to handle about 14 billion litres of petroleum products a year.
To pull Rwanda cargo, KPC has stretched storage from the usual 35 days to 90 days for an initial two-year period. The board approved that concession so importers have more time to manage stock and less pressure to empty Kenyan tanks in a rush.
Mombasa already handles Uganda’s petroleum under a separate G-to-G deal with Vitol Bahrain. Rwanda would be a second government cargo stream on the same coast.
The Nation story frames the call as part of Kenya’s effort to rebuild Mombasa as a regional petroleum hub. That is the policy hope. What Tuesday confirms is narrower: one tanker, one terminal, one new contract route.
Whether 500,000 cubic metres a year follows depends on later cargoes, pipeline slots and how much Rwanda keeps sending through Dar es Salaam. The first discharge does not settle that.
What it does is put Omani-supplied Rwandan fuel on the Kipevu berth and into KPC’s books. For the port and the pipeline, that is the immediate fact.
