Kenyan Energy Principal Secretary has said that the country might construct its own pipeline to convey oil from the northern Turkana region to a port at the coast, if the proposal to construct one with Uganda fails.

“Whatever the outcome, we will build an oil pipeline, whether we are together with the Ugandans or not,” Jopseph Njoroge said.

Kenya is currently contending with Tanzania to construct a pipeline from oilfields in Hoima, western Uganda. The pipeline through Kenya will connect with the Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor, a planned $26 billion project that will comprise of a port and a railway.

Meanwhile a senior economist at NKC Independent Economists in Paarl, South Africa, Jacques Nel, has said that constructing a pipeline in the country at this time is not viable.

“Kenya’s reserves, currently estimated at about 600 million barrels, do not support the country building its own pipeline. To build its own pipeline at the moment is not viable. Kenya has so much more vested interests in the regional pipeline, they have more to lose. They may have to make some concessions on tariffs, levies to sweeten the deal with Uganda,” he said.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has said that he had arrives at an agreement with the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, to direct the pipeline through Tanzania at a cost of approximately $4 billion as Total SA, will assist in funding the project.

A meeting to make a decision on which route is most viable is to take place on April 7 in Kampala, Bloomberg reports.

Anita Fatunji