Tanzania plans to complete the building of a crude oil pipeline from Uganda in 2020 at a valued cost of $3.5b, Reuters reported. The Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and Minerals stated that “the pipeline will have a length of 1,443 km and it is expected to be completed in 2020.” The cooperatively developed pipeline will carry Ugandan crude oil to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Tanga for export.

There will be three oil firms operating in Uganda – London-listed Tullow Oil, France’s Total, and China’s CNOOC – as they are all planning to take part in the project with building work scheduled to start in June 2017, according to Downstream Today.

In line with the plan, Uganda previously affirmed that it would prefer to construct a pipeline to ship out its crude from the fields in the Albertine rift basin through Tanzania rather than through Kenya.

Land-locked Uganda found crude oil reserves of 3.5b barrels in Hoima, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2006. Production from the field has been frequently pushed back.