From Reuters via Standard Digital

Tanzania wants an 8 per cent stake in Uganda’s planned oil refinery, a Ugandan minister said on Friday, a move that could be designed to boost Tanzania’s bid to secure a pipeline route for Ugandan crude over a rival pitch by Kenya.

Uganda has been discussing plans for a refinery for about seven years. It would process some oil from fields it is developing, although most crude would be exported.

Kenya, with its own oil fields under development, wants a joint pipeline. But Uganda, which initially said it had picked the Kenyan route, has since said it would pursue a pipeline through Tanzania. Nairobi has been pushing for Kampala to switch its plans.

Government plans to begin construction of a refinery have been delayed repeatedly by spats with oil companies over the whether Uganda needed it and by a protracted tendering process.

“Tanzania has offered to take its full share of the 8 per cent offered in the refinery,” Irene Muloni, Uganda’s energy minister, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.

She said she was awaiting written confirmation.

The $2.5 billion project is to be developed as a public-private partnership. Last year, the government picked a consortium led by Russian firm RT-Global Resources to acquire a majority stake, develop and operate the plant.

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