EAC to study regional oil pipeline

The
East African Community is set to undertake a feasibility study on the
construction of an oil product pipeline from Uganda to Rwanda, easing fuel
supplies in the landlocked countries of Rwanda and Burundi, the EAC secretariat
said early this week.

The regional
body has obtained a grant of at least $600,000 for the study from the African
Development Bank, which will look at the viability of linking the two countries
to a pipeline project running from the Kenyan coast to Uganda, the EAC cited
Patrick Nyoike, the permanent secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Energy, as
saying.

“The
plan is to link Kigali [in Rwanda] by a pipeline from Kampala [Uganda], which
will allow petroleum products to be accessed from the planned refinery in
Uganda, as well as the existing refinery in Mombasa [on the Kenyan coast] and
international markets,” Nyoike was quoted as saying.

Uganda is
planning to build a 150,000 barrel-a-day refinery in its oil-rich Albertine
Rift basin following the discovery of at least a billion barrels of oil in the
past couple of years.

In March,
U.K.-based Tullow Oil PLC agreed on a joint-venture deal with France oil major
Total SA and China’s CNOOC Ltd. for the development of the oil fields in the
basin, which is expected to cost at least $10 billion.

EAC member
states are also planning to diversify energy sources within the region in order
to enhance security of energy supply, Nyoike was cited as saying.

The
regional body has finalized studies on the proposed natural gas pipeline from
the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam to Kenya’s Mombasa in order to end
overreliance on limited forms of energy. In February, Tanzania said that its
gas reserves had more than doubled to 7.5 trillion cubic feet following a
number of discoveries off the Tanzanian coast.

It is
expected that the project will contribute to the reduction of energy costs and
shield power generation from variability of weather and international crude oil
prices, Nyoike was cited as saying.

The EAC
member states are Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.