Vitol Bahrain Inks MoU with Tanzania Petroleum and Uganda Oil to Build $20B Tanga Refinery
On 6 August 2026 at the Ikulu State House in Dar es Salaam, Bahrain-based Vitol signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding with Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) to build a Regional Energy Hub at Tanga. The Project is estimated at USD 20 billion, similar to the one to be built in neighboring Kenya at Mombasa. Interestingly, Dangote had initially proposed to build the refinery at Tanga, but the talks did not materialize.
The Signing Ceremony took place in the presence of Tanzania’s President Samia Hassan and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who was on a state visit. This Project is expected to complement Uganda’s own Hoima refinery with a capacity for 60,000 barrels per day. Vitol has been operating in Uganda’s petroleum sector since 2019, when it signed for a similar oil infrastructure project with UNOC.
The studies for a gas pipeline linking Uganda and Tanzania is about to be completed by October 2026. Tanzania’s Minister of Energy Deogratius Ndejembi underscored that the new gas pipeline builds upon the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). Uganda’s Minister of Energy highlighted that the petroleum resources are an important energy source to support the industrialization drive and the Project represents a strategic step-up from exporting crude oil or raw minerals.
Tanga is a port on the Indian Ocean and is located in northeastern Tanzania. It is the end-point of the #EACOP, which is about to be completed, with the first crude oil shipment expected by January 2027. Tanga has set up the Congoleani oil terminal and has also launched an LPG terminal in June 2025.
The EACOP is designed to transport up to 230,000 barrels of oil per day. When the refinery is ready, that will be the main source of its feedstock. Other than supplying the local Tanzanian market, the Tanga Oil Refinery aims to export refined petroleum products. It is worth noting that Ethiopia, Kenya, and, now, Tanzania all have oil-refining projects in the pipeline, so to speak.