Country to lease land to oil importers

Tanzania is offering land leases to prospective oil dealers ahead of an expected surge in oil imports through the Dar es Salaam port. Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) senior corporate communications manager Franklin Mziray said that a total of 55,000 sq metres of land had been set aside for the construction of modern oil depots. Under the ongoing Redevelopment Plan, the government through the Ministry of Land, Housing and Settlement Development purchased land at the Kurasini area, which is adjacent to the Dar es Salaam port, to facilitate the on-the-shore port expansion. The expansion plan includes the gazetting of the Kurasini area into a port area and re-settlement of families that will be moved from the area.

An offshore oil discharging facility known as the Single Point Mooring bouy (SPM) will also be replaced to allow bigger oil tankers to call at the Port. The project to replace SPM with a modern discharge facility is estimated to cost $44 million. TPA also intends to build two new cargo freight stations to support the sharp increase in the volume of containers going through the port. The Authority owns two inland depots at the Kurasini and Ubungo, which can store up to 250.000 twenty-foot equivalent units per year, which it says was inadequate. The freight stations will include a concrete block paved area for container stacking, asphalt surfaced area for storage of imported vehicles, a transit shed and rail siding as well as a workshop building. The cost of building the two inland storage facilities is estimated to be $75 million. (The East African, Nairobi)