EAC to Conduct Study On Rwanda, Nation Oil Pipeline

Isaac Khisa and Agencies

13 May 2011

The East African Community is set to undertake a feasibility study on the construction of an oil product pipeline from Uganda to Rwanda.

The move is expected to ease the movement of fuel supplies into landlocked Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

The permanent secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Energy, Mr Patrick Nyoike, said on Tuesday that the EAC had obtained a grant of at least $600,000 for the study from the African Development Bank, which will look at the viability of linking the two countries to a pipeline project running from the Kenyan coast to Uganda.

“The plan seeks to link Kigali [in Rwanda] by a pipeline from Kampala [Uganda], which will allow petroleum products to be accessed from the planned refinery in Uganda, as well as the existing refinery in Mombasa [on the Kenyan coast] and international markets,” Nyoike said.

Uganda is planning to build a 150,000 barrel-a-day refinery in its oil-rich Albertine Rift basin following the discovery of at least a billion barrels of oil in the past couple of years.

In March, UK – based Tullow Oil agreed on a joint-venture with France oil major Total SA and China National Oil Offshore Company for the development of the oil fields in the basin, which is expected to cost at least $10 billion.

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