The government on Thursday assured Kenyans that more fuel was coming after the ship MV Front Cheetah, with more than 100 million litres of super petrol, docked at the Mombasa port.

Energy Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma said more fuel ships were expected to dock in the coming days.

The government, she said, had reached out to all stakeholders in the energy sector to ensure there is a stable supply of petroleum products.

"I am here at the port to witness the dispatching of petroleum products and already the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) has confirmed to have enough stock for regular dispatch to different parts of the country,” she said. 

“In the manifest, we have a number of ships expected to dock in Mombasa in the coming days."

Speaking at the new Kipevu Oil Terminal 2, Ms Juma said the government is determined to activate it starting this month.

"Apart from witnessing the dispatch of fuel, I am also here to confirm that starting next Monday, the new terminal will receive its first vessel and it will play a key role in ensuring regular and faster supply of petroleum products into the country,” she said.

Energy Principal Secretary Andrew Kamau said the new terminal will have the capacity to handle several ships at once, thus reducing discharge time.

"The terminal will start its operations next week and already KPC is at the final stage to acquire Kenya Petroleum Refinery storage tanks to ensure there's adequate storage once the new facility starts operations. We expect the takeover talks to end in the next four or six weeks," he said.

The new Kipevu terminal has the capacity to handle up to four vessels at once while the existing one can only take one. It is expected to reduce the cost of petroleum products by cutting demurrage costs, which contribute greatly to the high cost of such commodities.

The facility will have subsea and land-based pipelines connecting it to the storage facilities in Kipevu, and the capacity to handle five different fuel products. These include crude oil, heavy fuel oil and three types of white oil products (DPK-aviation fuel, AGO-diesel and PMS-petrol). 

The facility sits directly opposite the second container terminal at the port. It has the capacity to handle vessels with a dead weight tonnage of 200,000 and a dedicated liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) line. 

The new LPG terminal will have two offloading lines, and officials say KPC will be given rights to one line while private companies will be allocated the other.

The second line will play a key role in ending KPC’s longtime monopoly of gas supply, as it will allow new entrants in the business.