The Ugandan government is in a somewhat enviable position, primed to take advantage of competing interests in the region and exploit its own energy resources. The Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) announced March 7 that it hoped to close negotiations with Uganda in August on a pipeline to export oil from Uganda's Lake Albert oil fields through Tanzania. The statement comes after Uganda began tentative talks with Tanzania's regional rival, Kenya, to build a pipeline with similar goals of transporting its oil. While the Tanzanian option has progressed the most, the deal is far from finalized, and Kampala seeks to pit Dodoma and Nairobi against each other to see who will offer the lowest transportation costs. Nevertheless, Uganda remains at least three years away from an export pipeline and oil exports even under the most optimistic scenario....
