It is a done deal. Uganda has officially chosen the Southern route through Tanzania for the proposed crude oil export pipeline.
The much awaited decision on the $4 billion project was announced yesterday afternoon at the 13th Northern Corridor Infrastructure Summit in Munyonyo attended by President Museveni, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame.
Also in attendance were Tanzania’s minister of Foreign Affairs Augustine Mahiga, the South Sudanese presidential advisor on Economic Affairs Aggrey Sabuni, and Ethiopia’s Deputy Premier Debretsion Gebremichael.
Speaking at the summit, President Museveni, said: “I have agreed with President Kenyatta that, let the two pipelines go ahead, one from Lokichar to Lamu and another from Hoima to Tanga.” The announcement ends months of speculation and weeks of protracted deliberations by technocrats from the governments of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Initially, the three countries were torn between the northern route to the Kenyan Lamu archipelago at the Indian Ocean, and southern route from Hoima to Tanga Port, also at the Indian Ocean. At today’s summit, the heads of state, however, also agreed that Kenya will develop its own oil pipeline from Lokichar, where the country discovered oil, currently estimated at 600 million barrels, to Lamu.
The Japanese engineering firm Toyota Tsusho in 2014 conducted and submitted feasibility study on the Lamu and Mombasa routes, but recommended the 1,300kilometres Lamu route, citing the need to tap into the economies of scale of LAPSETT corridor -- a joint infrastructure project of South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya.
The 1,403km southern route is backed by French oil giant -- Total SA -- one of the three oil firms licenced to operate in Uganda together with the UK’s Tullow Oil PLC and China’s Cnooc. Total, which has conducted a study on this route, says is willing to bankroll the project.
The decision on the pipeline also came on the heels of a meeting held on Friday night at Entebbe State House between President Museveni and a delegation from the French oil giant led by Africa director for exploration and production Guy Maurice and Total E&P Uganda general manager Adrewale Fayemi.
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