President Uhuru Kenyatta meets Uganda President Yoweri Museveni at
Entebbe State House, Uganda, on August 9, 2015. Total E&P Uganda has
affirmed its commitment to construct the $4 billion crude oil pipeline
through Tanga despite ongoing talks between Kenya and Uganda to have it
pass through the the country. Kenyan and Ugandan officials are touring
Lamu and Lokichar, following a decision by President Kenyatta and
Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni to have all possible routes reviewed and
harmonised. PHOTO | PSCU.
Total E&P Uganda has affirmed its commitment to construct
the $4 billion crude oil pipeline through Tanga despite ongoing talks
between Kenya and Uganda to have it pass through here.
The company’s general manager Adewale Fayemi said at the two-day East Africa Oil and Gas conference in Tanzania.
“As
a company, our position remains that we are going through Tanga. I
understand there are issues being discussed but our position remains the
same,” Fayemi said.
He said all available options have
been carefully considered and the firm is more interested in the Tanga
route, which will be cheaper for oil production.
Total
is UK Tullow Oil’s partner in the Ugandan oil fields and the main
financier of the operations. China National Offshore Oil Companies is
also a partner.
The firms are eyeing production of an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of Uganda’s crude oil by 2018.
The
routes that could be explored by Kenya and Uganda in construction of
the crude oil pipeline are; the southern route through Nairobi from
Uganda to Mombasa and the northern one through Hoima, Lokichar Lamu.
Uganda
and Tanzania, on the other hand, could construct the pipeline from the
Albertine basin in western Uganda to the port of Tanga.
GO IT ALONE
Energy
Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge, however, said that if all fails,
Kenya could go it alone on the crude oil pipeline; “We will build an oil
pipeline, whether we are together with the Ugandans or not.”
Total’s
stand on the issue comes as President Uhuru Kenyatta considers
negotiating for the Lamu route through his host President François
Hollande during his April trip to France.
At the
moment, Kenyan and Ugandan officials are touring Lamu and Lokichar,
following a decision by President Kenyatta and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni
to have all possible routes reviewed and harmonised.
In
the tour, the team is looking at the terrain, technical and economic
aspects of three possible routes through Tanga in Tanzania, Lamu or
Mombasa port in Kenya.
Since Total is a major financier
in Uganda’s crude oil, its current stand on the pipeline could water
down a meeting by Presidents Kenyatta and Museveni set for next week.
Moreover,
the turn of events follows an announcement by Tanzania Petroleum
Development Corporation (TPDC) Executive Director James Mataragio, that
France had readied $4 billion to begin construction of the pipeline by
August and have it completed in two years.
A statement
provided by the World News Report states that Mr Daniel Kiptoo, the
legal adviser of the Cabinet secretary for Energy and Petroleum
responded to Total, noting that Kenya’s concerns on the crude oil
pipeline would be addressed within the EAC.
“Kenya is
open to any least cost route available, whatever the case, we will go it
together as East Africans,” Mr Kiptoo is quoted as saying
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