Work on Sh360 billion Uganda oil pipeline begins

The leaders of Tanzania and Uganda on Saturday laid a foundation stone for the construction of a Sh360.5 billion crude export pipeline that would pump Ugandan oil for international markets.

The 1,445 km-project - set for completion by 2020 - will stretch from landlocked Uganda’s western region, where crude reserves were discovered in 2006, to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.

The project will become “the longest electrically heated crude oil pipeline in the world,” said Guy Maurice, Senior Vice President of Africa at Total Exploration and Production.

Total is one of the owners of Ugandan oilfields, alongside China’s Cnooc and Britain’s Tullow Oil.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli, flanked by his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, urged the three joint venture partners to speed up construction of the pipeline.

“We don’t need to delay the completion of the project for almost three years. They can do it even night and day to ensure the project is completed as quickly as possible,” Magufuli said.

“Act with big speed and make sure you finish this project before 2020.”