Energy cabinet secretary Davis Chirchir says KPC is working on a plan to revive the dormant oil refinery which was acquired by the government from Indian oil giant Essar.
Speaking in Mombasa where the CS was addressing the media said all the employees of the defunct Kenya Petroleum Refinery Limited will be absorbed by the Kenya Pipeline Corporation.
He challenged Kenya Pipeline Corporation to hasten its business investment model to revamp the defunct state-owned by Kenya Petroleum Refinery Limited to benefit its environs and the East African region at large in a bid to strengthen the country’s petroleum supply chain infrastructure.
“Kenya Pipeline Corporation comes to Kenya Petroleum Refinery Limited with a strong balance sheet of about 150 billion shillings with a strong company coming in to take KPRL activities and we expected PLC and his team and the board to quickly look at the investment option and take advantages of the location to ensure working for the region and make our lives better, “said Chirchir.
Mr. Chirchir reiterated that the refinery is internationally situated and will bring economic fortunes to the country.
After the approval of the acquisition of KPRL by KPC on 18th July this year, the KPC officials accompanied by the cabinet secretary for energy and petroleum Davis Chirchir held a joint meeting at the Mombasa county governor’s office before addressing the media.
He took issue with officials that there were going to be no layoffs as anticipated but instead a creation of more job opportunities for Kenyans.
“We will be looking into that and opportunities will not be there waiting nobody is losing jobs and we have zero in the transfer of shares as supposed transfer of business,” he said.
Mombasa governor Abdulswamad Nassir promised that the county will work closely with the KPC engineers on approvals when it comes to urban planning and works that need to be done.
“When it comes to the matter of approval we will allow them to remove the bottlenecks, however, urban planning will be included so that in our planning when we are now planning the whole of Mombasa we will not have a problem whereby they will oil pipeline crossing where there is water pipeline which has been a nightmare in the past,” Said governor Nassir.
IAN BYRON