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Tanzania: Tanzania-Zambia Oil Pipeline Up for Repair, to Lift Business 31 March 2008 Mohamed
Said A pipeline used to convey crude oil to the
landlocked Zambia has been earmarked for major repairs. The workers will work on sections of the
1,710-km pipeline that stretches from port city, Dar es Salaam to Ndola,
Zambia. The supervising company, Tazama Pipelines
has already identified the defective portions, procured basic repair
materials and last week it invited contractors to bid for the lucrative
repair works. The lucky bidders will remove and then
replace a 5-km portion of the pipeline and will also put sleeves to reinforce
the pipeline which transports the inflammable crude oil. "The company has recently acquired
8-inch line pipes needed to improve pipeline integrity through line
replacements and repairs of certain sections of pipeline between Dar es
Salaam and Ruvu River. Tazama said, "The required line pipe
for the replacement work as well as for making the necessary sleeves will be
provided by Tazama," the company disclosed. Observers say the repairs will be a boost
to the pipeline which is prone to leakages, vandalism not dismissing
saboteurs. The pipeline is property of the Tanzania
and Zambia governments respectively. It was built to counter the oil crisis
which succumbed the landlocked Zambia when the then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
imposed trade embargo. But its passage way was sometimes subjected
to human encroachment. In areas like Gongo la Mboto in Dar es Salaam people
erroneously built their houses where the pipeline passes beneath. Commissioned in 1968 the pipeline eases
importation of the Zambia-bound crude oil. Sea tankers upon their arrival at
Dar port will moor at an offshore oil discharging facility where they are
worked out by using submarine pipes that connects the facility to onshore oil
storage tanks. The oil after being received by the storage
tanks is then pumped onto the 1,710-km conveyor pipeline to start its journey
to its final destination, Ndola where it is then refined With an installed capacity to handle 1
million metric tones of crude per annum the pipeline is one of the renown in
Africa. Plans are underway to lease it to private
operators. Zambia's total energy imports for the year
1997 reached 607,000 metric tonnes, statistics show. |