Tanzania to Build Gas Pipe to Uganda - Ministry
Tanzania now plans to build a gas pipeline to Uganda, according to local news reports during the past week citing the energy ministry.
This latest declaration follows Ugandan foreign minister Sam Kutesa’s announcement on April 23 at a regional summit that his country would build a $2bn, 1400km oil export pipeline to Tanzania, rather than Kenya.
Tanzanian newspaper The Guardian quoted the energy ministry statement as saying: “Several east African countries have asked to buy gas from Tanzania … to start with, the [Tanzanian] government plans to build a gas pipeline to Uganda.” The statement gave no information on cost or precise route, according to the May 5 Guardian report which can be read here.
Tanzania is likely to move from self-sufficiency in gas to a small surplus later this decade, based just on recent onshore developments by firms such as France's Maurel & Prom, Canada's Orca and UK-based Aminex.
However some 70% of a recently-cited Tanzanian 57 trillion ft3 gas resource figure is offshore gas. The latter is in deepwater fields operated by Shell or Statoil/Exxon that are earmarked primarily for an onshore LNG export plant at Lindi but which have yet to begin development and are unlikely to start producing before 2021 at the earliest. The figure also includes 2.7 trillion ft3 onshore resources in the onshore Ruvu basin announced this March by the Dubai-based Dodsal Group 50km from the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam. Dodsal says this is the country's largest onshore gas find yet made.
Mark Smedley