Make-or-break talks for EA heads over route of Uganda oil pipeline

East African leaders will hold a make-or-break summit later this month over the route the oil pipeline from Uganda should take.

The 13th Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) Summit takes place on April 23 in Kampala amid negotiations between Kenya and Uganda to have the latter reverse an agreement with Tanzania.

Kenya and Uganda had initially agreed on the Hoima-Lokichar-Lamu oil pipeline but Tanzania later announced it had reached a separate deal for a route from the oilfields of north-western Uganda to the port of Tanga.

With multinationals like France’s Total E&P and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) on one hand, and Japanese Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Qatar National Bank (QNB) on the other, both keen on controlling East African oil resources, the negotiations could not have been harder.

“In the summit, we discuss many issues. This is one of the many issues that we will discuss,” Energy and Petroleum Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge said.

A day before the summit, the joint Kenya-Uganda committee that was set up to negotiate the thorny subject of the oil pipeline route will be expected to present its findings to Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and Yoweri Museveni.

“We would have discussed it before the summit,” the PS confirmed.

NCIP members are Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Ethiopia.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is likely to accede to NCIP as a full member during the summit.

Though not a member of NCIP, Tanzania has been sending representatives to the summit.

All the NCIP members, including DR Congo and Tanzania, are interested in the regional oil pipeline, with South Sudan also having been in negotiations to transport its produce through Kenya instead of Sudan.

With the oil pipeline now a major talking point in the region, the agenda of the NCIP summit could be overshadowed by the ongoing negotiations.

A communiqué of the 12th NCIP Summit in Kigali on December 10 “directed ministers to continue exploring alternative financing options” for the refined petroleum products pipeline.

The summit further “noted the importance for securing land for infrastructure projects” under which the oil pipeline falls.

Mr Njoroge, while acknowledging the importance of the oil pipeline issue, holds that it will not overshadow the summit’s agenda.

“Obviously this is an important subject but the summit’s agenda is usually very long. We will have given our report to the presidents before the summit. I therefore don’t think it is going to be the main agenda, though it’s a very important subject,” he said.

TUG OF WAR

Ahead of the summit, a member of the Kenyan team in talks with Ugandans questioned Kampala’s sincerity.

The team member whose identity cannot be disclosed claimed Kampala was under control of France’s Total firm, who are pushing for Tanga (Tanzania) route while claiming that the Kenyan route is prone to insecurity.

The issue is turning into a test of might pitting France and China against Japan, while Britain through Tullow Oil stands to gain either way since it has significant stakes in both Kenya and Uganda oilfields.  

“Definitely there is some monkey business going on and we can see it from afar. The proposed route is through Isiolo then Garrisa. That is central, not northern region where they are expressing fears about,” indicated the source.

“We cannot transport our oil to Uganda for onward transportation to Tanzania; that’s not possible,” said the source.

Kenya, the government source indicated, will build its own pipeline with or without Uganda.