The 13th Summit of the Northern Corridor Projects that sat in Kampala has finally decided that Uganda’s crude oil pipeline will pass through Tanzania to the East African cost ending speculation over the same.
Addressing the summit on Saturday afternoon, President Yoweri Museveni said after a meeting with his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, they had come to an agreement that the Tanzanian route would be more viable.
“I have agreed with President Uhuru Kenyatta that the two pipelines go ahead – one from Lokichar to Lamu and another from Hoima to Tanga,” said Museveni at the summit.
Early this week, the Permanent Secretary in the Foreign Affairs Ministry Amb. James Mugume said that the final decision for the pipeline lay in the hands of both Kenyan and Ugandan presidents who he said were scheduled to meet on Friday before the summit concluded.
The Permanent Secretary said that among other key factors to be considered would be the route with a cheaper cost for a barrel to reach the East African coast.
According to a joint communiqué by the heads of state, it was agreed that the 2 crude oil pipelines (Lokichar-Lamu) and Hoima-Tanga) would be developed by Kenya and Uganda respectively.
It was also agreed by the summit that Tanzania will invest in the shareholding of the Uganda oil refinery project, a decision that had been proposed by Dar-es-Salaam government.
In an interview with Chimpreports, Uganda’s director of Petroleum in the Energy Ministry said after evaluation and taking into consideration all factors, they had decided to take the route through Tanzania.
Chimpreports has independently learnt that factors like insecurity and the long distance could not favour Kenya in the pipeline deal.