By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Tanzanian authorities have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a United Arab Emirates (UAE) firm, Emirates National Oil Company Group (ENOC) for the construction of infrastructure to receive and store petroleum products.
The deal was brokered on Saturday between the Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and representatives of ENOC.
The Minister for Energy, Mr. January Makamba at the signing ceremony, noted that one of the major issues that would be addressed by this project is the long waiting time for offloading of oil products, especially on transit to other East African countries.
According to the Minister, shipping delay could persist more than 2 weeks, which he says often leads to an increase in the product’s price.
“The current Petroleum Act requires the country to have enough petrol for utilization for 15 days, but currently, the storage enables us to sustain for 30 consecutive days. Much should be done to increase the country’s storage capacity,” the Minister said.
He stressed that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is affecting the energy market, and noted that now is as good a time as any to embark on such a project.
Also in his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of the ENOC Group, 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 current infrastructure will help us in the estimation and negotiation processes with the government. We have the experience to carry such projects to other countries like Morocco, Djibouti, Malaysia, and Dubai,” he said.
Since the beginning of this year, a number of oil deals have been successfully reached between African countries and foreign oil firms.
Countries such as Algeria, Libya, and Uganda have made major strides in their oil sector based on these new deals.
