I think refinery for 500,000 barrels is not small. I have seen Nigeria thugs refine oil in forests. There is really nothing complicated.
Uganda and Kenya oil is sweat but sticky - it need to be heated - and I doubt Uganda can pull the world longest heated pipeline.
Kenya should simply build huge refinery and target - Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan - and that is enough market.
Uganda should do the same target Eastern Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania - Burundi;
There is no need to export - to earn dollars - we can save the same dollars.
Kenya should pay off Tullow and do this internally.
I wonder where Munyes has been all these days. He seemed to have not consulted the energy experts in his ministry. Kenya's oil reserves are not worth it to build a refinery. Modern refineries in order to be economic viable, have to take up a lot of oil. Kenya's annual consumption does not call for a national refinery. The solution which was proposed and got rejected because of politics, was to have a joint refinery with Uganda. This refinery would have been built in Uganda, which has much more discovered oil reserves than Kenya. Kenya had agreed to the plan, but somewhere along the line Uganda opted for the option of building a crude oil pipeline through Tz.
This is where African countries do not get their act together. The East African region should get together and stop playing rivals. This huge oil potential should be solved together. The oil reserves in Uganda and Kenya are enough for the whole region and everyone would benefit from cheaper oil. Insead everyone is doing his thing.
Just build a refinery in Lokichar - and use it as chance to forcefully separate pokot and turkana - by acquiring 10 mile buffer - btw them - to be used for oil production.
Kenya probably consume now anything upto 200,000 -300,000 - if you add regional demand all the way to congo - we should just build a small refinery in Turkana - and save our economy 3B worth of forex annually.
https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/corporate/shipping-logistics/kenya-seeks-sh500bn-pipeline-oil-storage-facilities-3262098