In a bid to get an additional stream of revenue, the Mombasa-based Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd’s (KPRL) is set to store bitumen.
The Petroleum Ministry said the storage tanks currently being used to store crude oil for export under the Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS) would be used to store bitumen at the end of the project.
Petroleum Principal Secretary Andrew Kamau said the facility is looking to reinvent itself to stay afloat.
“We have invested Sh1.1 billion so far,” said the PS in Nairobi last week.
“The refinery is looking to become a bitumen storage company in the future. It was producing bulk bitumen but since the refinery closed, no one is importing bulk bitumen.”
Bitumen is a key material in road construction and with growth in road construction, it is increasingly becoming expensive due to the limited options that road contractors in the country have.
KPRL currently operates as a petroleum storage facility.
The refinery quit refining crude oil in 2014 in what was seen as the end of the once-thriving business.
But it was given a lease of new life when the Government said it would refurbish tanks that previously held crude oil so that they could store refined petroleum imported into the country.