Tanzania, Zambia agree $1.5 billion oil pipeline deal

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Tanzania and Zambia have settled plans to build a $1.5 billion oil pipeline between the two countries, according to Tanzania’s energy minister.

During the presentation of his ministry’s 2019-2020 budget, Medard Kalemani confirmed plans that will see a 1,349 km pipeline built from the commercial capital Dar es Salaam to Zambia’s mining city of Ndola.

Tanzania, Zambia to build pipeline

Zambia is Africa’s largest producer of copper but the south-central African nation imports most of its petroleum from the Middle East via the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Kalemani says the pipeline project will reduce the challenges of transporting petroleum products between the two countries and open new business opportunities with surrounding countries.

The minister also said the pipeline will have take-off points at Morogoro, Iringa, Njombe, Mbeya and Songwe regions in Tanzanian. The project will be jointly implemented by Tanzania and Zambia but no timeframe has been provided.

Featured image: By Carl-Johan Roos – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29568319

About Aaron Brooks

Aaron Brooks is a UK journalist who wants to cut out the international agendas in news. Spending his early years in both England and Northern Ireland he saw the difference between reality and media coverage at an early age. After graduating from the University of Chester with a BA in journalism, his travels revealed just how large the gap between news and the real world can be. As Editor-in-Chief at East Africa Monitor, it’s his job to provide a balanced view of what’s going on in the region for English-speaking audiences.