President William Ruto speaking during an interview with the media at State House Mombasa on October 1, 2026/ PCSPresident William Ruto has said Kenya will start extracting oil from Turkana before December this year and will have begun transporting the crude from the region by then.
Speaking during an interview with the media at State House Mombasa, Ruto said the government was already taking steps to move the country's crude oil production forward.
“We will start extracting the oil in Turkana before December this year, and we will have begun transporting it from there," Ruto said.
Ruto's remarks come as Kenya moves to develop the planned Lamu refinery, which is expected to process crude from Turkana alongside supplies sourced from international markets.
The President said Turkana crude would eventually be transported to Lamu through a pipeline to be developed as part of the refinery project.
“We have agreed with Dangote that he will invest in a pipeline from Lamu to Turkana so that we can bring the oil from Turkana to Lamu,” Ruto said.
He said Kenya's domestic production would not be sufficient to meet the planned refinery's feedstock requirements.
“Even Turkana cannot give you 700,000 barrels. So we will get crude from everywhere,” he said.
The proposed refinery is expected to have a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, meaning crude from Turkana would be blended with supplies from other markets.
Ruto compared the planned facility with the Dangote refinery in Lagos, Nigeria, which he said sources crude from different markets.
He said the Lamu refinery would also produce aviation fuel and other petroleum products for the domestic and regional markets.
The refinery is expected to form part of a wider industrial complex in Lamu, with the government seeking to attract investment in petrochemical, chemical and plastics manufacturing.
