Kenya Funds O&G Infrastructure with Bond Sale

Kenya plans to spend a significant amount of cash in the coming years to add to its oil and gas infrastructure. The government is making moves to spend an estimated $25 billion on a second port, an oil pipeline from South Sudan, and roads. The infrastructure spend is aimed at luring more investors into the East Africa region. 

Several months ago the Kenyan government and the government of South Sudan agreed to build a crude pipeline that will take crude produced in South Sudan to Lamu on the Kenyan coast, providing an alternative to shipping Juba’s crude north through Khartoum. Early-stage construction began in March to clear the way for a deepwater port at Lamu that will serve Kenya’s underdeveloped north and its neighbors in the region like Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Uganda.

In July the government opened a tender for the design and construction of the first three berths at Lamu. The construction is to be financed by the annual sale of $154.4 million of infrastructure bonds over five years.

The bulk, container, and general cargo docks are scheduled for completion by 2016 and it will be expanded to 32 berths capable of handling 24 million tons of cargo per year by 2030.