The government yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a United Arab Emirates (UAE) firm for the construction of petroleum receiving and storage infrastructures.
The deal was signed by the Ministry of Energy and representatives of the UAE-based Emirates National Oil Company Group (ENOC).
The decision aims at making Tanzania a petroleum hub in East and Central Africa as well as sustaining the country’s fuel demands for up to six months.
Speaking during the event, the minister for Energy, Mr January Makamba, said the new infrastructure will reduce delay times for offloading of oil products, especially on transit to neighboring countries.
“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,” he said.