Govt in support of initiative to set up oil pipeline to Rwanda
Mr Steve Omenge Mainda, Chairperson Continental Reinsurance (3rd right) taking Minister Ruth Nankabirwa on a guided tour at Bukasa-Bwerenga fuel terminal. Photo | Eve Muganga
The Board Chairperson of Mahathi Infra Uganda Ltd, Mr Steve Omenge Mainda has revealed plans by Uganda to set up an oil pipeline from Bukasa, Bwerenga in Kawuku to Rwanda to save the roads in the transportation of oil products.
“We have demonstrated what we can do and hope that when we complete this project we can be given permission to set up an oil pipeline from Bukasa to Rwanda. In America and Europe you do not see fuel tanks on the road because they either use rail or pipelines and we have the funds and ability to do this,” Mr Mainda said on Saturday while taking the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Ruth Nankabirwa on a guided tour of the Bukasa-Bwerenga fuel terminal.
MT Kabaka Mutebi II, which was launched in December 2022 has been operating in the area and transports 4.5 million litres of fuel from Kisumu to the Bukasa-Bwerenga fuel terminal. The terminal has the capacity to store 70 million litres of fuel.
“One of the landmarks of the project is the building of the first ship (MT Kabaka Mutebi II). There are supposed to be four ships and the second one, which is nearing completion with the same capacity will be commissioned in December this year,” Mr Mainda said.
He added that the project is going to be a game changer in the economy of Uganda as well as the neighbouring countries of South Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and parts of Tanzania, including Mwanza, Bukoba and Musoma.
Minister Nankabirwa commended the investors’ initiative to set up fuel tanks worth 70 million litres to add to the existing 30 million litre capacity tanks in Jinja.
“If the investor finds it commercially viable to connect from here to Rwanda by a pipeline rather than using trucks, the government supports that. The roads, which the trucks use to carry fuel keep on wearing out and we spend money on rehabilitation, not forgetting traffic jams and accidents. But such a project requires resettlement of people, which the government will take on and ask the communities to cooperate,” she said.
Mahathi Infra Uganda Ltd is the Company running the fuel terminal project at Bukasa-Bwerenga Kawuku in Wakiso District.
