Kampala - Uganda is by December expected to start a search process for a lead investor for the development of a 1,500km oil export pipeline from the Albertine Graben through South Sudan to Kenya’s Lamu port along the coastline.
This comes after Toyota Tsusho, a Japanese consultancy firm hired to conduct feasibility study for the $4 billion (Shs12 billion) infrastructure completed and submitted a technical report on the pipeline to the East African government under the Northern Infrastructure corridor.
Current status
The communications officer at Uganda’s Petroleum directorate, formerly Petroleum Exploration and Production Department (PEPD) in the ministry of Energy, Ms Gloria Ssebikari, told Daily Monitor yesterday that a technical team from all countries under the Northern corridor-Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan, is currently in the process of reviewing the report.
“They are expected to come up with recommendations that will be presented to leaders during the next EAC summit in June,” Ms Ssebikari said.
The crude export pipeline is expected to start in Hoima and snake through North East Uganda to S.Sudan and then connect to Lamu via the Lokichar basin where the Kenya discovered and announced potential oil volumes that could hit the 1 billion barrels mark.
UK’s Tullow Oil PLC is currently appraising several oil blocks in the area and is currently in the process of conducting Extended Well Testing (EWT) to gather comprehensive data on the potentiality of the oil reservoirs.
The technical team, she added, is assessing the “terms of references”, financing options, and engineering designs for the project. After submission to the EAC heads of states, Uganda and Kenya are expected to put out Request for proposals for qualified firms and potential investors towards the end of this year.
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