Tanzania minister re-assures Ugandans on pipeline project

Tanzania's minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Prof Palamagamba Kabudi has re-assured Ugandans about the readiness of his country to oversee the construction of an oil pipeline to the port of Tanga is East Africa's largest country.

"You are not dealing with novices. You are dealing with people who have experience in handling such projects," he said on Friday at the signing of the Inter-Governmental Agreement between Uganda and Tanzania on the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project in Kampala.

Drawing from the experience Tanzania gained from building the Tazama pipeline from Ndola in Zambia to Dar es Salaam in the 1960s, Kabudi said Uganda should have full confidence in his country's ability to do a good job.

 "Zambia is landlocked; they have no route to the sea except through Rhodesia which is now Zimbabwe, which was under white rule at that time. Tanzania and Zambia partnered to build that pipeline. We also built a railway with the assistance of our friends from China," he said.

"If it is 2020 (the year first oil is expected in Uganda), it will be 2020."

Uganda last year agreed to build an oil export pipeline from the Albertine Graben to Tanga Port in Tanzania. Because Uganda's oil is waxy in nature, the 1445km long, 24-inch diameter pipeline is going to be the world's longest heated crude oil pipeline.