The deal was sealed last week after a three-day meeting between Rwanda’s minister for industry, trade, investments, tourism and cooperatives, Protaris Mitali and his Tanzanian counterpart, Basil Mramba in Dar es Salaam.

A source that has seen the copy said that both countries made the commitment to ease the transportation of petroleum products through Dar es sallam, including relaxation of transit charges.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Dar es Salaam, Mramba was quoted by the media as saying that his country “has accepted to provide Rwanda with a route for petroleum products.”

“The port authority will also ensure that goods to Kigali are not delayed”, Mitali said. He noted that the Kenyan crisis had created a window for the two sister countries to fully use Dar es salaam port as a permanent alternative link to the sea.

“Tanzania will facilitate change of destination for petroleum products when ever necessary”, reads part of the memorandum of understanding signed by both parties.

Seeking to address the current fuel shortages in the short term, Tanzania is said to have agreed on the re-exportation of duty paid petroleum products on credit arrangement. This system, both states argued, can be used for further or subsequent imports by oil export companies in lieu of tax refund.

Rwanda’s petroleum imports are to be cleared at the Kurasini oil jetty in Dar es salaam.

“We have reached a landmark agreement not only on easy importation of petroleum products through Tanzanian, but also on numerous issues that would enhance trade between us”, the Rwandan minister said.

A Rwandan official who declined to be named said that Tanzania informed Kigali officials of the availability of a 100,000-ton petroleum storage facility at an oil and gas refinery at Dar es Salaam port. They immediately offered Rwanda storage facilities of about 45000 tons of petroleum reserves. Rwanda however, was not keen to have its reserves outside the country.

With the post election violence in Kenya not abating, Rwanda recently introduced fuel rationing to deal with the fuel shortage.

The country’s fuel reserves according to some officials from the Department of petroleum in the ministry of trade, are running low. However, with the signing of this agreement, there seems to be hope that Rwanda can survive the crisis.

The port of Dar es salaam has rail and road links to about six landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi and Burundi.

The Kenyan seaport of Mombasa has for longe served as the entrance and exit door for imports and exports to and from Uganda, Rwanda and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The ongoing turmoil has pushed landlocked neighbours to start looking for safer roads.

Keywords: tanzania rwanda business energy