Aaron Roberts
United States Oil Fund (AMEX:USO) climbed 2.13% to 130.01 USD, trading within a 52 week band of 102.42 to 142.33 and an RSI of 54.16 that points to steady, unhurried buying rather than a rush. The move comes as investors weigh a fresh wave of east africa oil refinery news, with three governments racing to lock down control of the region's future fuel supply.
- USO trades at 130.01 USD, up 2.13% on the day
- 52 week range sits between 102.42 and 142.33, RSI at 54.16
- Dangote has agreed to build a 17 billion dollar, 700,000 barrel per day refinery on Kenya's Lamu Island
- Tanzania and Uganda countered with a 20 billion dollar energy hub in Tanga backed by Vitol Bahrain
- East Africa's current refined fuel demand runs around 450,000 barrels per day, far below Lamu's planned capacity
| Price | 130.01 USD |
|---|---|
| Day change | +2.71 (+2.13%) |
| 52-week range | 102.42 – 142.33 |
| RSI (14) | 54.16 |
| Volume | 3,052,132 |
In Brief
- Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote picked Lamu Island over Tanzania's Tanga and Uganda's Hoima for his mega refinery
- Kenya pledged Khs 21.5 billion in seed capital and invited neighbors to buy in
- Tanzania and Uganda responded with their own Vitol Bahrain backed project tied to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
- Uganda is also building a separate 4 billion dollar, 60,000 barrel per day refinery in Hoima
- The rivalry echoes the collapsed 2014 Uganda Kenya pipeline agreement
Why the East Africa Oil Refinery Race Suddenly Matters
Oil markets rarely turn on a single refinery announcement, but the scale of Dangote's Lamu project changes the math for a whole region. At 700,000 barrels a day, the plant would rank as Africa's second largest refinery after Dangote's own Nigerian facility, and it would dwarf East Africa's existing appetite for refined fuel, which industry estimates put near 450,000 barrels daily. That gap matters because it means Kenya, once built out, could become a net exporter of fuel to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, reshaping trade flows that have long run through Mombasa almost by default.
The broader crude tape offers useful context. USO's climb toward the upper half of its 52 week range suggests global oil sentiment has firmed even as this regional drama plays out separately. A weaker dollar this year has made dollar priced crude somewhat cheaper for buyers holding other currencies, a tailwind that touches everything from West Texas benchmarks to the diesel and gasoline that East African refiners hope to eventually produce and sell.
A Region Split Between Lamu and Tanga
The path to Lamu was anything but smooth. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda initially seemed to agree on Tanzania's port city of Tanga as the site, before Kenyan President William Ruto's support for a facility outside his own country raised eyebrows. Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan later said Ruto announced the project on her soil without proper consultation, a public rebuke that laid bare how little coordination underpinned the original plan. Dangote himself ultimately broke the deadlock, weighing Uganda's Hoima and Kenya's Mombasa before settling on Lamu.
Tanzania and Uganda did not simply accept the outcome. Weeks after Kenya secured the Dangote deal, the Uganda National Oil Company, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and global trader Vitol Bahrain signed an agreement in Dar es Salaam for a 20 billion dollar energy hub in Tanga. That project leans on the nearly finished East African Crude Oil Pipeline, using Tanga for storage and blending and giving landlocked Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC a fuel corridor that bypasses both Mombasa and Lamu entirely. Uganda, characteristically hedging, is backing both regional projects while also pressing ahead with its own UAE financed refinery in Hoima, a smaller 60,000 barrel per day plant aimed at domestic self sufficiency by 2030.
Old Rivalries, New Pipelines
None of this is entirely new. A similar standoff sank a planned Uganda Kenya pipeline back in 2016, when Kampala walked away from the Lamu route after deciding Tanzania's Tanga corridor was cheaper and easier to build, partly because land acquisition in Kenya proved costly and slow. French energy major Total backed the Tanzanian option and now holds 62% of the 1,443 kilometer East African Crude Oil Pipeline connecting Uganda's Lake Albert oilfields to Tanga.
The competition has since spilled beyond oil into rail and port infrastructure. Tanzania is expanding its Central Corridor and electrified Standard Gauge Railway, and it has signed cross border rail agreements with Uganda that could pull cargo away from Kenya's Northern Corridor. Kenya, in turn, has broken ground on Phases 2B and 2C of its own SGR extension, aiming to link Naivasha through Kisumu to the Ugandan border town of Malaba by 2027. Whether these parallel, overlapping investments strengthen the East African Community or simply entrench three separate spheres of energy influence remains an open question that will likely take years, not months, to answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Ghana have oil refinery?
Yes, Ghana operates the Tema Oil Refinery, a state owned facility on the country's coast that has processed crude for the domestic market for decades.
Does Kenya have an oil refinery?
Kenya's former refinery in Mombasa stopped processing crude years ago and now functions mainly as a storage facility, which is part of why the country is pursuing the new Dangote backed plant on Lamu Island.
How many oil refineries in Africa?
Africa has several dozen refineries in operation across the continent, though many run well below capacity, and new large scale projects like Dangote's Nigerian and planned Kenyan plants are reshaping that count.
Does East Africa have an oil refinery?
East Africa currently lacks a large scale, fully operational refinery capable of meeting regional demand, which is precisely the gap that the proposed Lamu project and Uganda's smaller Hoima refinery aim to fill.
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