A contract has been awarded for feasibility studies on the proposed Dar es Salaam-Mombasa natural gas pipeline.

The East African Community secretariat has picked the COWI Group to carry out the US$561,700 (Ksh40 million) survey funded by the African Development Bank. The Denmark based consulting group will work with COWI Tanzania Limited and Runji & Partners of Kenya.

EAC director for productive and social sector Mr. Caleb Weggoro said the project’s aim is to establish the commercial viability of building the proposed pipeline from Dar es Salaam through Tanga to Mombasa. The pipeline has been proposed to supply natural gas along the route as well as to Mombasa for power generation and other industrial applications. MottMacDonald Ltd of Britain is currently carrying out a study on the viability of Kenya building bulk import, storage and distribution facilities of liquefied natural gas in Mombasa.

Tanzania made commercial discovery of natural gas and Uganda discovered oil. Kenyan remains the only country in the region that has not found fossil fuels despite exploration efforts recently showing possibilities.