Ethiopia canceled the plan it made to construct a fuel pipeline that stretches to its neighboring country, Djibouti. The pipeline was planned to be constructed by Black Rhino Group, South African based infrastructure investment group.

It was back in 2014 that Black Rhino, proposed to the Ethiopian government to construct a 550 kilometers long pipeline to transport diesel, gasoline and jet fuel from the Port of Djibouti to central Ethiopia. The project was estimated to cost 1.55 billion USD and the government had reviewed as well as accepted the proposal in principle.

The US investment group Black Stone backed Black Rhino and the latter undertook a feasibility study on the project. Following this, Djibouti and Ethiopia signed a framework agreement on the planned pipeline construction back in 2015.

Ethiopia’s fuel import has been in the rise at a 10 percent rate. It has now reached 3.8 million metric tons. It currently uses tanker trucks to transport the fuel from the Port of Djibouti to central Ethiopia, which is very costly. Fuel theft, adulteration and waste are also other challenges with the road transport.

The fuel pipeline project included an import facility and 950,000 barrels of storage capacity in Damerjog, Djibouti, linked to a storage terminal in Awash, Ethiopia.
According to Black Rhino, the 20-inch (51-centimeter) line would have been capable of transporting 240,000 barrels of fuel daily.

Source: The Reporter