President Yoweri Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta will tomorrow hold talks over the oil pipeline.
The talks will be held at State House Nairobi. The two leaders will discuss the construction of the Uganda-Kenya oil pipeline, part of the Northern Corridor Infrastructure Projects (NCIP).
The pipeline project was designed to move crude oil from the oilfields of Hoima to the Port of Lamu, through Kenya’s own oilfields at Lokichar.
EagleOnline has also learnt that Uganda’s oil producers – Irish company Tullow Oil, French company Total and China’s CNOC – have also been invited to the meeting.
In a communiqué issued after President Kenyatta’s State visit to Uganda last August, the two leaders said the development of a crude oil export pipeline needed to be implemented expeditiously to avoid any further delay in commercializing especially Uganda’s petroleum resources which were discovered nine years ago.
In construction of the pipeline, Kenya favours the “northern route” through Lokichar, because as part of the Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport) (LAPSSET) project, it would transform infrastructure and the way of life of the people in the towns and counties across its path.
Tanzania or Kenya
With the meeting on tomorrow, it confusing among Tanzania and Kenya which country will collaborate with Uganda to construct the pipeline. Just two weeks ago, Tanzanian President John Magufuli said two Tanzania and Uganda had agreed to build a crude pipeline linking their countries, connecting landlocked oilfields to the Indian Ocean,
The proposed Tanzanian link would cover an area of 1,120 kilometers (700 miles) and its construction was estimated to create 15,000 jobs.
President Magufuli said in a statement that the heated pipeline will cost about $4 billion and the two countries’ government plan to “move very fast” to implement the project.
