Lebanese family-owned firm Zakhem International Construction is set to build a $490-million multi-product oil pipeline in Kenya after a petition challenging the award of the contract was thrown out in mid-July by a government procurement agency.
The 450-kilometer, 20-in.-dia pipeline linking East Africa's trade gateway of Mombasa to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, will ease transportation of fuel to the land-locked economies of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The countries rely on road transport to move their fuel imports and petroleum products from Mombasa-based Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd., currently East Africa’s only refinery.