NIRAS has been appointed the consultant for a new oil terminal in Mombasa, which will replace the 50-year-old existing terminal. With this, the capacity of the terminal will be quadrupled.
NIRAS won the job to plan and design a new oil terminal in the Kenyan seaport Mombasa. The terminal is to replace the 50-year-old existing oil terminal, which is suffering from decay after a service life of 50 years. The existing terminal has only one berth, accommodating carriers up to 100,000 tons DWT.
The new oil terminal, on the other hand, will accommodate four ships of 150,000 tons DWT. Back in 2012, NIRAS conducted the first relocation study and with Kenya Port Authority it was agreed that the new terminal should be placed off the existing port terminals. Since then NIRAS has been in close contact with Kenya Ports Authority for the further development of the project.
”In August we signed the new contract and spirits were high when we were asked to commence the engineering of this interesting project,” says Business Unit Director at NIRAS, Jesper Harder.
Importance for the entire East Africa ”Port of Mombasa is the gateway for import and export not only to Kenya, but also to land-locked countries like Uganda, so the existing oil terminal is crucial for import of fuel to a big part of East Africa. Kenya Port Authority is therefore pleased that we can now implement a new terminal with increased capacity and we are looking forward to continue our collaboration with NIRAS on this important project” explains Daniel Amadi, Head of Projects Development and Management, Kenya Ports Authority.
Apart from the design of the new oil terminal, NIRAS will be in charge of the preparation of the tender documents for the constructions works, including the many electrical and mechanical installations such as pipelines and loading arms. When the contractor has been chosen, NIRAS will also be handling the supervision throughout the entire construction period. Experiences from Cypriot terminal The terminal in Mombasa will benefit from NIRAS’ fresh experiences from working on a similar terminal in Vasiliko in Cyprus.
“The project in Kenya is perfectly timed. It is evident that we on this project can utilise the experiences made from another major oil terminal project in Cyprus,” says Jesper Harder.
Jesper Harder sees great potential in especially the African oil terminals, and with Vasiliko and Mombasa on the reference list he believes that NIRAS is well equipped to take its share of the cake.
”The port infrastructure in many African ports is often insufficient and deteriorated. Seen in combination with fast growing economies in the continent, this provides an excellent opportunity for a company like NIRAS,” says Jesper Harder.
NIRAS has many years of experience with operating in countries such as the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. United States earlier on this year signed a US$ 3.7m agreement to fund expansion of Mombasa port. The country has also invested in a new online cargo clearance at the Mombasa port to improve on efficiency and tackle delays.
