(Ecofin Agency) - The Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore the petroleum potential of Lake Tanganyika together.

The agreement was signed in Dar es Salaam in the presence of Tanzanian President John Magufuli and Congolese President, Joseph Kabila.

“We have already discovered oil in the western parts of Lake Albert, and there’s a great possibility that there’s also oil in Lake Tanganyika, therefore, joint exploration is the way to go for mutual benefits,” Kabila said.

He added that they also deliberated on a joint partnership as regards the usage of the pipeline currently being built from Uganda to Tanzania to export Congo’s oil from Lake Albert.

East Africa is now been seen as a new hydrocarbon region, following major discoveries of oil in Uganda and natural gas in Tanzania and Mozambique.

In 2011, Tanzania granted oil and gas exploration rights for the northern side of Lake Tanganyika to a subsidiary of Total.

Tanzania also in February, announced that it had discovered 2.17 trillion cubic feet of possible natural gas deposits in an onshore field, increasing its total estimated recoverable natural gas reserves to over 57 tcf, Reuters reports.

Anita Fatunji