East African Leaders Plan Joint Oil Refinery in Tanzania

Nairobi, Kenya – East African leaders and billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote announced plans Thursday for a joint oil refinery at Tanzania's port of Tanga, aimed at processing crude from regional producers and reducing the area's dependence on imported fuel.

The initiative, discussed during a presidential panel at the Africa We Build Summit organized by the Africa Finance Corporation, would replicate the scale of Dangote's 650,000-barrel-per-day facility in Nigeria. Kenyan President William Ruto confirmed the ongoing talks, stating the project would draw oil from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda. "We're going to have a joint refinery in Tanga to benefit all of us because that refinery is going to take on board the oil from DRC, the oil from Kenya, the oil from South Sudan, and the oil from Uganda," Ruto said.

Dangote, Africa's richest man and chairman of the Dangote Group, pledged his company's leadership in the effort, provided regional governments offer support. "My commitment today here is that if we agree with the three or four governments here about the refinery, we will lead and we'll make sure that refinery is built within the next...