Dangote refinery equipment arrives at Lamu ahead of groundbreaking ceremony

On Saturday September 26th 2026, that is four days to the official groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the much anticipated Dangote East African Refinery in Lamu, Kenya finally received the first batch of heavy construction equipment and machinery that will be utilized in the 16 billion dollar project.

The consignment arrived in the country aboard a Chinese Flagged cargo vessel MV DA YANG BAI HE, that was coming from China carrying the massive shopping, and which docked at the strategic deep water Port of Lamu, laden with 2,930 metric tons of the heavy machinery, thus setting the stage for the groundbreaking ceremony that had been set to be held on Wednesday September 30th 2026.

The maiden vessel was received in the country by the Kenya Ports Authority Chief Executive Officer Captain William Ruto, namesake of the country's head of state, who personally steered and successfully maneuvered the vessel into its berth, before presenting a certificate of first call and a plaque to the vessel’s master Captain Wang Shengli.

The vessel was carrying a wide variety of construction machinery and equipment, including Sany hydraulic excavators, Sinotruck BHR branded heavy-duty truck-mounted concrete mixers, Sinotruck tippers and dump trucks, Flatbeds, heavy duty crawler bulldozers, sinotruck tankers for ferrying fuel and water, utility trucks, construction cranes and many more.

This arrival of the construction consignment came just a day after the Kenyan leader William Ruto touring the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, at the invitation of the Dangote Industries President and Chief Executive Officer Aliko Dangote on Friday September 25th 2026, for him to get a feel of the refinery before its replica is built on Kenyan soil.

The docking of the vessel at the port of Lamu highlighted one crucial thing, that being a deep water port, and this being a reason for which Aliko Dangote chose Lamu over Tanga for the construction of the refinery, the port will play a central role in supporting marine operations of the refinery.

It will be handling oil tankers which will be bringing in feedstock for the refinery, as well as handling ships ferrying refined petroleum products out of the refinery to international markets, thereby boosting the Port’s operations and positioning Lamu as a strategic East African energy focal point.

Upon receiving the vessel, Captain Ruto even said that the arrival was significant to the refinery project, assuring shipping partners and global merchants that the Port of Lamu is fully prepared to handle current and future cargo volumes, with KPA committed to efficient vessel turnaround, seamless cargo operations and customer-focused services that meet international standards.

And just a day prior to the arrival of MV DA YANG at the port of Lamu that Saturday, a crucial shipment related to Kenya's oil ambitions also arrived in the country, aboard a ship that was carrying massive oil extraction equipment, and destined for the Lokichar oil fields in Turkana.

The shipment was a massive onshore oil drilling rig, that is a GW70 Integrated Onshore Drilling Riga to be precise, and which the Turkana oil operator Gulf Energy had leased from Great Wall Drilling Company (GWDC), a global petroleum engineering and technical services provider, that is a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

The vessel ferrying the shipment was MV Transit Sedanka, which docked at the Kilindini Port on Friday September 25, having sailed from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates via Oman's Duqm Port.

The rig is valued at more than 2.59 billion Kenyan shillings, approximately 20 million US dollars, and was offloaded by the Kenya Ports Authority, before being transported by road to Turkana for use in the South Lokichar Basin.

The 15 hundred-horsepower masterpiece will undergo commissioning and acceptance checks before drilling begins, and had previously been used on projects for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), in the United Arab Emirates.

After receiving the rig, Gulf Energy Chief Executive Officer Paul Limoh said that the company plans to begin drilling oil on November 1st 2026, with the first phase of crude oil production targeted for December 2026.

That the company plans to produce 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day during the first phase, before increasing output to 50,000 barrels per day in the second phase of the South Lokichar development.

In this first phase of the project, the Kenyan owned Gulf Energy has contracted Baker Hughes to provide integrated well services, while SLB has been contracted to supply and set up the Early Production Facility (EPF), which will process the extracted crude oil directly from the fields, separating oil from water and natural gas, for it to be transported down the coast for refining.