African industrialist Aliko Dangote has indicated that Mombasa, Kenya, is emerging as his preferred location for a proposed 650,000-barrel-per-day East African oil refinery project.
According to reports, the refinery project is estimated to cost between $15 billion and $17 billion and is expected to serve the wider East African region.
Dangote reportedly said Mombasa holds stronger commercial advantages due to its deeper port infrastructure, larger economy and higher fuel demand.
“I’m leaning more towards Mombasa because Mombasa has a much larger, deeper port,” he said in an interview, adding that the final decision would depend on Kenyan President William Ruto.
The refinery proposal was first announced during the Africa We Build Summit held in Nairobi in April, where Ruto, Dangote and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni discussed plans for a regional refinery project initially linked to Tanga, Tanzania.
However, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan later publicly stated that she had not been consulted before the announcement identifying Tanga as the proposed refinery location.
The disagreement reportedly created diplomatic tension between Kenya and Tanzania and raised uncertainty over the final host country for the mega refinery project.
Despite the uncertainty, Mombasa remains a strategic fuel import hub in East Africa and serves as a major distribution centre for petroleum products across neighbouring countries including Uganda and Rwanda.
The project also faces supply concerns, as reports indicate that the combined crude oil production capacity of the expected supplier countries currently falls below the refinery’s planned processing target of 650,000 barrels per day.
