Uganda to build oil pipeline via Tanzania instead of Kenya

Uganda to build new pipeline to export its oil via Tanzania (AFP Photo)

Kampala (IINA) – Landlocked Uganda on Saturday announced plans to export its future crude oil production via a new pipeline to be built to a Tanzanian port rather than through Kenya.
"We have agreed that the oil pipeline route be developed from Uganda in Hoima to the Tanzanian port of Tanga," Uganda Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa told AFP.
"We considered Tanga oil pipeline route based on a number of aspects – among them it is the least cost," Kutesa said as Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta and Rwanda's Paul Kagame held a regional mini-summit outside Kampala.
The first large discoveries of oil in Uganda date back to 2006 on the shores of Lake Albert. Reserves in the area are estimated at some 1.7 billion barrels.
After years of talks discussing the relative merits of different routes out to the Indian Ocean, Uganda has chosen to run a 1,400-kilometre pipeline through Tanzania to the south of Lake Victoria through to the port of Tanga near the Kenyan border.
AB/IINA

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