Tanzania has entered into an agreement with Uganda to help in
the search for oil in the Eyasi Wembere Basin and Lake Tanganyika. The
two countries already have a crude pipeline deal.
This
puts to doubt Tanzania’s previous agreement with Democratic Republic of
Congo signed a year ago to work on a joint oil exploration in Lake
Tanganyika.
DR Congo has discovered oil in Lake Albert on its border with Uganda and it hopes to find oil in Lake Tanganyika.
Experts
from Uganda and Tanzania are now working together and have already
gathered geological and geophysical information in Eyasi Wembere basin
in central Tanzania.
In August, when Tanzania’s President John Magufuli and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni laid foundation stones for the Hoima-Tanga oil
pipeline, President Magufuli asked President Museveni to provide his
country’s expertise in oil exploration to Dar es Salaam. The request
took only a month to be implemented.
The groundwork
began two weeks ago when technicians from the Tanzania Ministry of
Energy and Minerals, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and
Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority and Ugandan experts toured the
Eyasi Wembere basin and Sekenke hills.
Oil deposits
After
the tour, Uganda’s acting Permanent Secretary of Energy and Mineral
Development of Uganda Robert Kasande and his Tanzania counterpart,
deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals
Juliana Pallangyo said geological and physical characteristics of the
area suggested presence of oil deposits.
The team
examined rocks around Sekenke in Singida region central Tanzania and
Mwanzugi and Kining’inila villages in Singida and Tabora regions.
Mr
Kasande said the team will send their recommendations to the Tanzanian
government and that could lead to further exploration and oil drilling
of test wells in the area. Their report also includes a proposed work
plan, budget and equipment needed.
He said he is
optimistic of oil finds in the area partly because other countries that
share the basin such as Kenya and Uganda have discovered oil deposits in
the same basin.
Should Tanzania find oil, it will be drilled and transported through the Hoima-Tanga pipeline for export from the Tanga port.
Gas reserves
Tanzania
has the second largest natural gas reserves in East Africa with 57.27
trillion cubic feet (tcf) so far discovered, behind Mozambique with
100tcf.
However, the country is a net importer of
petroleum products. During the 2014–2015 financial year, the country
imported a total of 4.6 billion litres of petroleum products.
On
its part, Uganda discovered large oil reserves in 2006 near Lake Albert
in the western part of the country. Total — the French oil company that
is developing the fields along with Tullow and China National Offshore
Oil Corporation — expects the project to produce oil by 2020. The area
is estimated to have 1.7 billion recoverable barrels of oil.
Dr
Pallangyo said Tanzania is keen to exploit Uganda’s experience in the
oil industry while Kampala could benefit from Tanzania’s pipeline
expertise given that the country manages the Tanzania-Zambia pipeline
and the Songo Songo gas pipeline.
Last year, Uganda
chose the Tanzanian route for its 1,115km crude oil pipeline instead of
the Kenyan deal that was a shorter 900km route. Tanzania offered Uganda
several incentives such as tax relief, a tax holiday for 20 years and a
free corridor for construction of pipeline infrastructure.
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