Tanzania joins the list of African countries to sign an oil deal in the new year

• The Tanzanian government has signed a new deal with a United Arab Emirates (UAE) firm. 
• This deal is for the construction of petroleum receiving and storage infrastructures.
• The storage infrastructure would help deal with the long waiting time for offloading of oil products, 

The government of Tanzania very recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a United Arab Emirates (UAE) firm for the construction of petroleum receiving and storage infrastructures.

This deal was brokered yesterday between the Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and representatives of the Emirates National Oil Company Group (ENOC).

During the signing, the minister for Energy, Mr January Makamba, noted that one of the major issues that would be addressed by the commissioning of this project is the long waiting time for offloading of oil products, especially on transit to other East African countries. He mentioned that shipping delay could persist more than 2 weeks, which often triggers 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.

The minister also made mention of how 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.

Commenting on the project, 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.

So far in the first month of the new year, a number of oil deals have been successfully negotiated 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.