Uganda and Tanzania have signed a deal to build the world’s longest electrically-heated crude oil pipeline.
The proposed US$3.55 billion project, which was agreed on last month, also covers terms on tax incentives for the project, implementation timelines, the size of the pipeline and local content levels to keep it on track for completion in 2020.
CNBC Africa reports that the 1 445 km-long, 24-inch diameter pipeline will begin in landlocked Uganda’s western region – where crude reserves were discovered in 2006, totalling an estimated 6.5 million barrels – and end at Tanzania’s Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.
Adewale Fayemi, the manager of Total Uganda, says the pipeline will also increase the flow of foreign direct investment as well as open a new phase of economic development in the region once the project is completed.