Kenya Airways and Rubis Energy Sign Deal to Build Africa’s First Dedicated SAF Refinery

Kenya Airways and Rubis Energy Kenya, the local unit of French energy group Rubis, have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop what the two companies are billing as Africa’s first dedicated sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) refinery, in a deal that signals a significant escalation of the national carrier’s decarbonisation ambitions.

The planned facility is expected to have a production capacity of 32,000 metric tonnes annually, with a project investment estimated at €60–70 million – approximately $70.5 million to $82.2 million. The agreement was formalised in the presence of President William Ruto and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The signing forms part of a broader package of Kenya-France bilateral agreements concluded during Macron’s state visit to Nairobi for the Africa Forward Summit. Presidents Ruto and Macron signed 11 bilateral agreements at State House on May 10, spanning transport infrastructure, port logistics, renewable energy, nuclear cooperation, agriculture, aviation, digital transformation, the blue economy, and meteorological services, with a combined value running into hundreds of billions of Kenyan shillings.

The refinery MoU is the most ambitious step yet in a SAF strategy Kenya Airways has been building for several years. The airline became the first in Africa to use SAF on a long-haul flight when it operated a Nairobi–Amsterdam Schiphol route powered by Eni Sustainable Mobility’s Biojet fuel in May 2023.

That milestone was followed by a deeper domestic commitment. From October 2025, Kenya Airways began operating select routes, including Nairobi to Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Cape Town  on a SAF blend produced from non-food crops grown in Kwale County on land previously degraded by mining, with the airline targeting a ten percent SAF share of total fuel use by 2030.

Kenya Airways has also been selected as the sole African airline to lead IATA’s SAF Registry, a platform that will allow airlines worldwide to purchase SAF regardless of production location and claim the associated environmental benefits.

The investment thesis for a dedicated Kenyan SAF refinery rests on a convergence of regulatory pressure and geography. Under EU rules, SAF must be physically delivered to planes at EU and UK airports to count towards blending mandates, a constraint that currently advantages production in or near European airports. Kenya Airways has been among the airlines pushing for a book-and-claim system that would allow SAF produced and uplifted in Africa to count towards European compliance obligations, a policy change that would materially improve the economics of an African refinery.

Kenya has been identified by ICAO feasibility studies as a potential SAF production hub, with feedstock availability and proximity to major air routes offering comparative advantages. The country’s existing SAF credentials, combined with Rubis Energy’s fuel distribution infrastructure, give the project a more credible commercial foundation than comparable proposals elsewhere on the continent.

For Rubis, a Paris-listed energy group with operations across Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe, the deal deepens its positioning in Kenya’s energy transition at a moment when France is actively expanding its commercial footprint in East Africa. The SAF refinery sits alongside a wider suite of Kenyan infrastructure commitments endorsed during Macron’s visit, including a $250 million expansion of the Kipeto wind energy project and an $800 million port and logistics joint venture.

With the MoU signed, the project now moves towards feasibility and financing phases. At an estimated $70–$82 million, the refinery would be a relatively modest capital commitment by energy infrastructure standards, though securing concessional or blended finance, given SAF’s still-elevated production costs relative to conventional jet fuel, will likely be central to project bankability.

If executed, a 32,000-tonne annual output would represent a meaningful contribution to Kenya Airways’ own SAF targets and could position Kenya to supply other African carriers, particularly those operating routes subject to the EU’s ReFuelEU Aviation mandates. The project would also give Kenya a first-mover advantage in what is likely to become an increasingly competitive African SAF production landscape.

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