anzania and Zambia are negotiating for a $400-million syndicated loan to finance the upgrade of a petroleum pipeline jointly owned by the neighbouring countries.
The project will involve expanding the 1 752 km Tanzania-Zambia Mafuta (Tazama) pipeline, making it a standard 12-inch-diameter pipeline, thus increasing the pumping capacity from 65% to 95%.
The pipeline, which runs from Tanzania’s commercial capital of Dar es Salaam to Zambia’s mining city of Ndola, comprises a 954 km, 8-inch-diameter stretch and a 798 km, 12-inch-diameter stretch.
The pipeline, the main means of transporting imported petroleum products into landlocked Zambia through the Dar es Salaam port, has a capacity of two-million litres a day.
“The goal is to upgrade the whole pipeline from Dar to Ndola, in Zambia, to 12 inches to increase its performance,” says Tamaza Tanzania regional manager Abraham Saunyama.
The upgrade of the more-than-five-decades-old pipeline comes at a time when Tanzania and Zambia are planning to build a new refined products pipeline at a cost of $1.5-billion.
Although the two nations have not indicated a timeline for the new pipeline, they intend to allocate funds for a feasibility study in their 2020/21 Budgets.
Tazama, which is 66.7%-owned by the government of Zambia, with Tanzania controlling 33.3%, was built in 1968. It has undergone several repairs, including the replacement of 28 pumping stations two years ago.
Zambia, whose annual petroleum import bill stands at $700-million, currently consumes about 1.3-million litres of petrol and 2.7-million litres of diesel a day.