Gas pipelines to Africa’s Great Lakes

EAC chairman President Paul Kagame of Rwanda said recently: “I am pleased to note that the oil pipeline extension from Eldoret to Kampala is ongoing, and will be completed by the fourth quarter of 2009.” Mr Kagame, in reporting to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), added that the terms of reference for feasibility study on the extension of a similar oil pipeline from Kampala in Uganda to Kigali in Rwanda and Bujumbura in Burundi had been finalized. “Similarly, the terms of reference for a feasibility study for the Dar-es-Salaam-Tanga-Mombasa natural gas pipeline have been completed and approved by the EAC Sectoral Council on Energy,” he said.

As part of the plan, the EAC partner states have agreed to share Tanzania’s Songo-Songo gas and the construction cost of a pipeline through Tanga to Mombasa and on to Kampala for distribution of gas for power generation in the partner states. Construction of the 320 km-Eldoret-Kampala oil pipeline began this month after the final land acquisition near Kampala for the pipeline’s inland terminal. Initially, road tankers will collect oil products from there for delivery to Burundi, Eastern Congo, Rwanda, and Southern Sudan. Tamoil East Africa won the tender in 2006 to build, own, operate and eventually transfer the project to the Kenyan and Ugandan governments after a period of 20 years. Tamoil is a subsidiary of a Libyan company that has a wide range of expertise in the oil business, including oil products distribution, oil engineering and refining. The 24-tank terminal will hold up to 160 million litres of fuel, enough to meet the requirements of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, including possible supplies to Eastern Congo and Sudan, for at least 21 days in case of supply disruptions. Ahmed El Gembri, the project manager for the pipeline and terminal, said recently that he hopes for completion in 15 months.

The project coincides with Uganda starting to extract its own oil from the Lake Albert area, and experts say the country will need a pipeline to move its refined product to the export market. The three fields in western Uganda where the oil has been discovered have reserves of between 100 and 300 million barrels, with 30m brls ready for extraction at just more than 12,000brl/d. Australian oil exploration company Hardman Resources, which had been commissioned by the Ugandan Government to prospect for oil in the country, discovered the oil in June 2006 in three western fields called Weraga 1, Weraga 2, and Mputa. Before that, oil exploration companies are reported to have spent at least $70 million on the search.

Although Ugandans are understood generally to be pleased at the prospect of the country’s new resource generating faster growth and creating more jobs, initial reactions from the inhabitants of the region where the oil was discovered are giving rise to similar problems that have been witnessed in oil producing areas in Nigeria. According to various reports from the Uganda media, tribesmen of the Banyoro, whose kingdom area covers the oil discoveries, started to claim their share of the oil immediately after President Yoweri Museveni’s announcement.