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.