* Growing fleet of cars, trucks boosting Kenyan demand
* But East Africa lacks refining capacity
* Kenya May imports seen up 30 pct from same month last year
* India refiners well positioned to ship cargoes
By Jessica Jaganathan
SINGAPORE, May 12 (Reuters) - Kenya is set to import recordvolumes of oil products in May as its economy gathers steam,soaking up some of Asia's excess supply and helping put a floorunder refining margins.
Industrial expansion and a growing fleet of automobiles in aregion that lacks refining capacity have stoked East Africanappetite for oil product imports, with relatively nearbyrefiners in India such as Reliance Industries wellplaced to ship cargoes.
Kenyan imports of diesel, jet fuel and gasoline are likelyto hit nearly 600,000 tonnes in May, up around a third from thesame month last year and nearly four-times larger than May,2013, according to import data seen by Reuters.
Soaring demand from Kenya is helping support Asian gasoilmargins at above $13 a barrel to Dubai crude, curbing the impacton prices of a supply glut in Asia as economic growth stuttersin some key markets there.
And Kenya's imports, which also include volumes forland-locked Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi, as well asparts of Tanzania, could rise more if plans are successful tosolve infrastructure problems such as the limited capacity of agovernment-owned pipeline.
"Demand for petroleum fuels in Kenya and the region,especially for gasoil and gasoline, has been on the risealthough infrastructure challenges, particularly the lack ofcapacity in its product receiving terminals, has curtailedsupplies," said a source familiar with the matter. He declinedto be identified as he was not authorised to speak with media.
SEVEN UP
The May figures bring Kenya's oil product imports so far in2015 to 2.66 million tonnes, more than half record annualshipments of 4.6 million tonnes seen in 2014, the trade datashowed. If those levels are maintained over the rest of 2015,the country's imports will have grown over seven-fold since2000.
The data also showed that Reliance, via its subsidiary GulfAfrica Petroleum Corporation (Gapco), is expected to supply over1 million tonnes of oil products to Kenya this year, up from912,000 tonnes in 2014, and increasing its market share tonearly 40 percent.
A Reliance spokesman did not immediately respond to requestsfor comment.
Other major suppliers of fuel to Kenya include Total and Vivo Energy, a joint venture between Royal DutchShell.
The government of East Africa's biggest economy expectsgrowth to rebound to 6.9 percent in 2015 after slowing to 5.3percent last year. (Editing by Henning Gloystein and Joseph Radford)
