The proposed Tanga Oil Refinery has been dealt a blow, with African billionaire Aliko Dangote now revealing he is leaning toward Kenya’s Mombasa for the multi-billion-shilling project.

Dangote made these revelations during an interview with the Financial Times on May 10, affirming that Mombasa has a significantly larger and deeper port than the proposed Tanga port in Tanzania, a critical factor for a refinery designed to process as much as 650,000 barrels of crude oil every day.

“I’m leaning more ​towards Mombasa because Mombasa has a much ​larger, deeper port,” stated Dangote.

Beyond the scale advantage of Mombasa Port, Dangote also drew a direct comparison between Tanzania and Kenya, noting that “Kenyans consume more,” describing Kenya as the larger and more attractive market.

For such a mammoth project, its estimated cost is around USD15 billion and USD17 billion US, roughly between Ksh1.9 trillion and Ksh2.2 trillion, making it one of the most expensive industrial investments ever proposed in the East African region.

While giving Mombasa the vote of confidence, Dangote, according to Financial Times, said the final decision on where the refinery would be established rested with President William Ruto.

“The ball is in the hands of President Ruto. Whatever President Ruto says, we will do,” Dangote reiterated.

 

The Tanga proposal only became public last month after President William Ruto announced plans for the joint regional refinery at the Africa We Build Summit in Nairobi, with Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni also in attendance.

Ruto outlined a bold plan to establish an oil refinery that would process crude oil from the DRC, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda, linked to Mombasa via a pipeline running through jointly owned infrastructure with Uganda.

 

“That refinery will process oil from the DRC, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda. We will then build a pipeline from Tanga to Mombasa, allowing finished products to move through infrastructure we jointly own with Uganda,” stated President Ruto.

 

But the announcement caught Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu by surprise, with the Tanzanian head of state revealing that she had neither been consulted nor informed about the project before Ruto went public.

Tensions and diplomatic friction emerged during President William Ruto’s state visit to Dar es Salaam on May 4, 2026, after Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan publicly rebuked him, turning the visit into a notable moment of regional strain.

East Africa currently imports every liter of refined petroleum it consumes, mainly from the Middle East, making the region one of the most energy-vulnerable in the world.

Supply disruptions and price spikes linked to the US-Israeli war on Iran have rippled through East Africa’s fuel markets, hitting transport costs, food prices, and household budgets hard.