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Roundup: Tanzania, Uganda discuss implementation of 1,400-km pipeline

Xinhua, April 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

The governments of Tanzania and Uganda on Friday held the first meeting for technical teams to discuss the implementation of the 1,400-km pipeline which will connect Uganda's western region near Hoima, where big oil reserves have been discovered, with Tanzania's port of Tanga.

Sospeter Muhongo, Tanzanian Minister for Energy and Minerals, said the technical teams involved experts from both countries who discussed the structure of the project and implementation plan.

"The team of experts is holding a meeting to discuss activities for implementing of this project. The team include experts in almost all fields, such as economists, roads and construction, land, port development, oil and gas, water resources and marine engineering," Muhongo told a news conference in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Irene Muloni, Ugandan Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, said her government had strong commitment to finance construction of the crude oil pipeline.

"We are here to discuss the project structure. We call for support from communities and the media for successful implementation of this project. We have set a timeline of 2020 to complete this project," she said.

The Ugandan minister said that her government was implementing another project on the construction of a 4.7-billion-U.S. dollar oil refinery plant in Uganda for exporting petroleum products to other East African countries.

Last week, Uganda announced that the pipeline will be routed through Tanzania's port of Tanga instead of Kenya where concerns about possible attacks by Somalia's al-Shabab Islamists said to be a factor.

Uganda announced its decision in Kampala at a summit of the East African Community bloc, which groups Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.

The project is expected to cost about 4 billion U.S. dollars and create 15,000 jobs.

The discovered oil reserves in Uganda are estimated at some 6.5 billion barrels, and the country expects to start production in 2018.

France's Total, China's CNOOC and the Anglo-Irish company Tullow hold most of the licences. Endit