Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has arrived Tanzania, Thursday for the Host Government Agreement (HGA) to sign the construction of a $4.16 Billion 1,440-kilometre pipeline to carry oil from Western Uganda to the Indian Ocean coast in Tanzania.
Tanzania’s Spokesperson Gerson Msigwa announced that President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Museveni will take part in the signing of the Uganda–Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline, also known as the Hoima-Tanga Oil Pipeline, an agreement between Tanzania and investment companies in the project.
President Samia said “We have recently witnessed the signing of an agreement between Tanzania and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Company. We have approved the construction of this pipeline and the construction of the port in Chongoleani Tanga, this is an important step towards the start of construction.”
President Museveni added that, “The issue of social welfare has two parts, the first part that most Africans are very familiar with is services such as health and education, but the second part is the production of goods to get sustainable services.”
When completed, the pipeline will transport crude oil from Uganda’s oil fields to the Port of Tanga, Tanzania on the Indian Ocean.
President Museveni becomes the first head of state visiting Tanzania since President Samia was sworn in as head of state on March 19, 2021.
On April 11, President Samia visited Uganda where they signed three key agreements at State House Entebbe to kick off the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). On May 4, she was also in Kenya on a two-day state visit for bilateral talks with her host counterpart President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Uganda has so far discovered over 6.5 billion barrels of oil and is requesting Tanzania with an estimated recoverable reserve of over 57.54 trillion cubic feet(tcf) of natural gas to supply natural gas to help power its’s iron and steel industry.
President Yoweri Museveni said in Dar es Salaam on Thursday, “Uganda has natural gas, but not as much as that available in Tanzania or Mozambique. We need gas for the steel industry to remove oxygen from iron ore”