Overview of Tazama Pipeline – Location, Ownership, Operation and More

Tazama Pipeline, also known as the Tanzania–Zambia Crude Oil Pipeline, runs 1,710 kilometers [1,063 miles] from the seaport of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania towards the Indeni Petroleum Refinery at Ndola, Zambia.

Tazama Pipeline Location

The Tazama pipeline runs from Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam to Zambia’s rich Copper region, right on the border with the DRC’s economic town of Ndola. The pipeline is roughly 1060 miles long [1,710 kilometers]. The channel has an 8-inch (200-millimeter) diameter for 954 kilometers [593 miles] and a 12-inch (300-millimeter) diameter for the remaining 798 kilometers [96 miles]. The pipeline travels through or near these famous cities and towns, according to the pipeline website’s map, namely Morogoro, Iringa, Dar es Salaam, Kalonje, Epass, Chinsali, Ndola, and Mbeya

Overview of the Tazama Pipeline

The Tazama Pipeline was built to deliver crude oil mainly from  Dar-es-Salaam seaport to landlocked countries like Zambia at a cheap and sustainable cost. The pipeline had a load capacity of 1,100,000 tons [1,212,542 tonnes] per year when it was constructed in 1968. loading capacity had declined to 600,000 tons [661,387 tonnes] per year by 2002.

Tazama Pipeline owns associated infrastructure in Tanzania, including a tank farm in Dar es Salaam with 6 storage tanks at sea, including three tanks with a combined capacity of 36,000 m³ 36,000,000 Liters] and three tanks with a cumulative total of 41,000 m³ [41,000,000 Liters]. Between Ndola and Dar es Salaam, there are seven pumping stations: five in Tanzania and two in located Zambia.

Tazama Pipeline Ownership

Tazama Pipelines Ltd, with head office in Ndola, Zambia, and another office located in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, owns and operates the pipeline. Tanzania Zambia Mafuta is the acronym for TAZAMA. In Kiswahili, “Mafuta” stands for “Oil.” The table below shows who owns what percentage of Tazama Pipelines Ltd’s stock. 

 Operation

The Tazama pipeline wears out and occasionally leaks because of old age and an absence of adequate maintenance. Repair of these leaks is essential to avoid the ocean waters’ climatic impacts and corruption.

Because Tazama Pipeline and the Indeni Petrochemical Refinery cannot supply all of Zambia’s refined petroleum products in the quantities required, the Zambian and Tanzanian governments are considering building a 1,349-km [838-mile] advanced petroleum products channel at the cost of $1.5 billion. No time frame has been put in place yet.

For more articles related to Energy in Tanzania click here!