East Africa’s fuel future is being built in Mpigi and Tanga

What the report says

The Observer reports that President Yoweri Museveni recently launched construction of the Kampala Storage Terminal in Mpigi, Uganda, a $300 million fuel storage project designed to hold 320 million litres of petrol, diesel, jet fuel and kerosene. According to the article, the facility is expected to more than double Uganda’s national storage capacity and be completed within 24 months. The writer says the terminal is intended to strengthen supply security and support Uganda’s goal of becoming a regional petroleum hub.

The piece places the project within a broader energy strategy that includes planned refining capacity in Hoima, a products pipeline, additional storage in Jinja and the approach of first oil from Uganda’s petroleum sector. It also notes that Uganda’s fuel import system introduced in 2024 helped cushion the impact of international disruption, including higher freight and insurance costs linked to conflict in the Middle East. That context is used to argue that larger strategic reserves and diversified transport routes are becoming more important.

The article also connects Uganda’s plans with a separate energy hub proposal in Tanga, Tanzania, developed with Uganda and Vitol. That memorandum, the report says, envisions a bidirectional products pipeline between Tanga and Uganda, allowing refined fuel to move inland or to the coast depending on demand. The writer frames the Mpigi and Tanga projects as part of a wider East African effort to improve fuel resilience through storage, pipelines and cross-border coordination.