Tazama (Tanzania Zambia Mafuta) Pipelines, which is partly owned by the government of the Republic of Zambia and that of the United Republic of Tanzania, is currently seeking USD 400 million to upgrade its Tanzania-Zambia Crude Oil Pipeline.
The Tazama oil pipeline is over 1,700 km long from the port of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, to the Indeni Petroleum Refinery in Ndola, Zambia. For 954 km, the pipeline has a diameter of 8 inches, and for the remaining 798 km, the pipeline diameter is 12 inches.
The difference of the pipeline in diameter limits its pumping capacity to two million ltr per day. With the loan the company will be able to upgrade the entire pipeline to a diameter of 12 inches and consequently this will increase the capacity of the pipeline to approximately 1.1 billion ltr per day. Once the fund is obtained and equipment imported, it will only take 18 months to complete the upgrading.