Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrives in Kenya

H.E. Wang Yi, State Councilor and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China arrived in Kenya Wednesday to begin a two-day official visit.

He was received at Mombasa International Airport by Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amb. Raychelle Omamo.

According to the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi, Wang Yi’s mission in Kenya will primarily center on among others; the promotion of the implementation of the outcomes of the 8th Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Ministerial Conference that took place in Dakar Senegal in November last year.

The embassy further indicated that the Chinese top diplomat is in the country so that in consultation with Nairobi, Beijing will ‘dovetail new measures for practical China-Kenya cooperation,’

Given the covid pandemic, the communication from the embassy further noted that Wang Yi and the Kenyan leadership will deliberate on the support needed to help the country in the fight against the deadly pathogen as well as the realization of economic recovery post-covid at an early date.

During his visit, the Foreign Minister is expected to pay a courtesy call to President Uhuru Kenyatta and participate in a Ministerial round-table meeting with CS Omamo together with other Cabinet Secretaries.

He will at the same time pay a courtesy call to President Kenyatta at Statehouse, Mombasa before they proceed on a tour of the new Ksh 40 billion oil terminal, that is being constructed by China Communication Construction Company (CCCC).

The visit gives the two countries an opportunity to enhance bilateral relations by signing Agreements and further cement the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation Partnership between Kenya and China.

On Thursday, President Kenyatta and the Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister are scheduled to inspect the progress of ongoing works at the new Kipevu Oil Terminal (KOT).

The new KOT is an off-shore facility located at the Port of Mombasa, opposite the existing Kipevu Oil Terminal. The project consists of one offshore island terminal with four berths whose total length is 770m and one work boat wharf at the Westmont area for landing facilities.

The industrial facility also has five sub-sea pipelines which were buried 26 meters under the seabed to allow for future dredging of the channel without interfering with the pipes.

There are risers dedicated to a separate oil product connecting the terminal to the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited (KPRL) and Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) storage tanks.

Once complete, the new oil terminal facility will have four berths (One not fully equipped) capable of handling six different hydrocarbon import and export products; it is also fitted with a Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) facility, crude oil and heavy fuel oil. It also has provisions for handling three types of white oil products (DPK- aviation fuel, AGO – diesel and PMS – petrol).

The terminal will for a start be able to accommodate three ships concurrently with a capacity of 200,000 tons each. A fourth berth has already been constructed provisionally, which will be fitted with facilities in the future commensurate with demand, to be able to handle a fourth ship.

The new facility will effectively replace the old Kipevu Oil Terminal situated on the mainland Port Reitz, which was built in 1963 to serve the then East Africa Oil Refinery (EAOR) which later became the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited (KPRL).

The Old KOT is a single jetty with a capacity to accommodate only one vessel at any given time. Then the discharge pipe sizes were smaller, product and discharge flow rates were also much slower although they served well at the time.

According to the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Ag. Managing Director Amb. John Mwangemi, the new terminal will have various benefits to the economies of the region.

Some of these benefits include; reduced vessel turn-around time from 4 days to 2 days, guaranteed security of supply for the region, expected significant reduction in demurrage costs, expected reduced freight costs owing to improved cargo handling capacities and leverages associated with larger economics of scale, and an enhanced vessel operational flexibility through the increased vessel handling capacity.

Besides this, the oil terminal boasts enhanced LPG importation facilities which will lead to a possible reduction of LPG costs and more LPG uptake in the Country. Aside from improved fuel handling, customers will benefit from economies of scale as bigger vessels call the port with reduced freight.