Uganda and Tanzania have signed off a deal to build East Africa’s first major oil pipeline. It came just two days after Kampala signed a host government agreement with French oil giant Total. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and his Tanzanian counterpart John Magufuli, signed a deal on 13 September to build a 1,445km, $3.5bn crude oil pipeline. This will be the first pipeline in East Africa, which will connect Uganda’s oil-rich Hoima region with the Indian Ocean through the Tanga port in Tanzania.
About 80% of the pipeline will go through Tanzania which will, in turn, create thousands of job opportunities in Tanzania, and likely a good reason to sign a similar deal with Total. Magufuli said during the signing ceremony with his Ugandan counterpart on Sunday that “When we strike oil, we will simply connect those areas to the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline”.
Data source: the Africa report
