KAMPALA, Uganda
Uganda is negotiating with Tanzania to import its oil products through Dar es Salaam, which would mean an end to imports via Kenya's Mombasa port, Uganda's energy minister said on Thursday.
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Uganda has been dissatisfied
with the longstanding system under which its fuel companies buy 90 percent of
their supplies through affiliated firms in Kenya. President Yoweri Museveni has
complained this exposes his country to supply disruptions and high pump prices.
In response, Uganda announced
in November it would hand over exclusive rights for supply of all petroleum
products to a unit of global energy trader Vitol.
The East African nation
imported $1.6 billion worth of petroleum products in 2022, mostly originating
from the Gulf.
Museveni’s government planned
for imports to still arrive via Kenya, but Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa said
the Kenyan government refused to grant the required license.
"We are negotiating with
the Tanzanian government. The technical teams are talking, and I will be
meeting Her Excellency, the president on that," Nankabirwa said, adding,
"we want to find a route that will keep us safe in terms of petroleum
supplies."
Kenya's Energy and Petroleum
Regulatory Authority and Tanzanian officials did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
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