The deal was brokered yesterday between Tanzania’s Ministry of Energy and representatives of the Emirates National Oil Company Group (ENOC).
During the signing, the Minister of Energy, Mr January Makamba, noted that one of the major issues addressed by the commissioning of the project was the long waiting time for offloading of oil products, especially in transit to other countries in East Africa. They mentioned that the shipping delay could last more than 2 weeks, triggering an increase in the price of the product.
“The current Petroleum Act requires the country to have enough petrol for consumption for 15 days, but the current storage allows us to sustain it for 30 consecutive days. More must be done to increase the country’s storage capacity. Minister said.
The minister mentioned how the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is affecting the energy market and noted that now is a good time to start such a project.
Commenting on the project, ENOC Group Chief Executive Officer Mr. Saif Humaid Al promised to work closely with the Tanzanian government to mitigate some of the challenges facing the country’s energy sector.
“The existing infrastructure helps us in the estimation and negotiation processes with the government. We have experience in carrying out such projects in other countries like Morocco, Djibouti, Malaysia and Dubai. He said.
So far in the first month of the new year, several oil deals have been successfully negotiated between African countries and foreign oil firms. Countries such as Algeria, Libya and Uganda have made major progress in their oil sector based on these new agreements.