By Our Correspondent, Dar es Salaam
Tanzania has reached a defining moment in its energy story. For years,
conversation around the country's vast natural gas reserves centered on promise,
on what could one day be. Today, that promise is becoming something you can
point to: real, clean, affordable energy running through the city's roads,
factories and, soon, its kitchens.
The Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) deserves real
credit for laying the strategic vision and the policy groundwork that made this
possible. But the credit for execution, for turning that vision into pipe in
the ground, belongs to the local companies doing the building. Leading that
charge is Rashal Energies Limited.
Breaking Ground and Moving Fast
Physical construction on the 22-kilometre pipeline connecting Kisemvule
to Mbagala began on 28 July 2026, following the completion of all
statutory permits and legal approvals in May 2026, with mobilisation wrapped up
the following month.
Progress since then has been swift. Around two kilometres of pipe have
already been jointed, one and a half kilometres of trench have been excavated,
and the first completed sections have been lowered into the ground, backfilled,
and successfully pressure tested. The company is targeting full completion of
the line by January 2027.
The work itself is exacting: butt-fusion jointing of the pipe, precision
trenching, the laying of warning tape, and hydrostatic pressure testing — a
full installation methodology executed cleanly despite the demands of a busy,
densely built urban corridor.
Built by Tanzanians, for Tanzania
What sets this project apart isn't only what it will carry, it's who is
building it. The pipeline is being delivered entirely through private Tanzanian
capital, and every construction contract along the route has gone to local
contractors. The crews handling the jointing, the trenching, the backfilling
and the pressure testing are Tanzanian. So is the engineering supervision on
site.
That matters in a sector that has, historically, leaned heavily on
foreign expertise. Laying pipe through a dense urban corridor is unforgiving
work, it demands flawless fusion welding, disciplined trench management around
live water, power and telecoms infrastructure, and a testing regime with zero
room for error. So far, the project has recorded no damage to any third-party
asset along the route, and not a single completed joint has needed rework, a
record achieved by local teams working strictly to international procedure.
Under the sharp leadership of CEO Farhiya Warsame, Rashal Energies
is making a broader point: that Tanzanian companies have the technical depth,
the vision and the execution capacity to lead complex, large-scale gas
infrastructure projects. Her teams have coordinated closely with TANROADS (the
principal wayleave owner), TANESCO, DAWASA and TTCL, and the results speak for
themselves, zero disruptions to third-party infrastructure, and zero lost-time
injuries. It's a standard of operational discipline that sets a new bar for
indigenous engineering firms across East Africa.
What the Pipeline Unlocks
Once complete, the pipeline will serve more than ten industries along the
Kisemvule–Mbagala corridor, giving each a direct connection to natural gas in
place of diesel and heavy fuel oil for backup power generation and industrial
equipment. For years, manufacturers in and around Mbagala have absorbed the
cost and hassle of trucking in liquid fuel. The pipeline replaces that with a
continuous, metered supply, cheaper per unit of energy, and far cleaner.
Mother Station — Mbagala:
Phase One of Rashal's strategy centres on a flagship Mother Station in
Mbagala, which will compress gas directly from the pipeline for vehicle
refuelling and load it onto cascades for distribution to smaller stations
across the city.
Daughter Station — Vijibweni:
To get around geographic constraints and reach the growing industrial hub
around Kigamboni, a dedicated Daughter Station is being established in
Vijibweni, supplied by high-pressure mobile tube trailers.
Phase Two: Five additional CNG stations are planned, building out a robust network
a mix of piped and virtual pipeline gas, that will meaningfully cut fuel costs
for transport operators and reduce urban emissions across Dar es Salaam.
The DART Hub — Mbagala:
The pipeline will also supply the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (DART)
facility in Mbagala. DART moves hundreds of thousands of passengers a day, and
gas at its Mbagala depot opens the door for its bus fleets to run on CNG instead
of diesel, cutting both operating costs and emissions along some of the city's
busiest, most exposed corridors.
The National CNG Picture
The Kisemvule–Mbagala project isn't emerging in a vacuum it's arriving at
a moment when the country has already begun taking real steps toward CNG
adoption, even if there's a long road still ahead.
The government, through TPDC, has acknowledged that gap and is moving to
close it. A separate 2026 TPDC report outlines plans to invest more than TZS
22.06 billion in mobile CNG stations during the 2026/27 financial year, a
move designed to extend access into areas not yet reached by fixed pipeline
infrastructure. It's against this backdrop of national momentum that the
Kisemvule–Mbagala pipeline and the five-station network set to follow it
carries weight well beyond a single private investment. It's a building block
toward the country's broader goal of a reliable, safe, and affordable
clean-energy network for far more Tanzanians.
A Path to Cleaner Cooking
The longer-term ambition is domestic. President Samia Suluhu Hassan
launched the National Clean Cooking Energy Strategy in May 2024, setting a
target of at least 80 percent of Tanzanians using clean cooking energy by 2034.
Piped natural gas is one of the few solutions capable of reaching dense
urban households at scale, at a low day-to-day cost. A distribution backbone
through Mbagala lays the physical groundwork for that future, once the
transmission line and local network are in place, connecting individual
households becomes a far smaller step than building the system from scratch.
Rashal Energies says the pipeline has been designed with that future expansion
in mind.
It's a public health issue too. Indoor air pollution from traditional
cooking fuels is linked to tens of thousands of deaths in Tanzania every year,
with women and young children bearing the heaviest burden. Every household that
moves off charcoal represents a measurable gain.
A Coalition Built for the Job
Delivering the CNG infrastructure for the Mbagala Mother Station and the
Vijibweni and DIT Daughter Stations has been entrusted to a consortium of seven
specialised companies, spanning civil construction, pipe manufacturing and
installation, telecommunications, digital monitoring technology, and
specialised CNG equipment.
That structure is designed to reduce delays, guarantee quality and
compliance, and avoid technical setbacks at commissioning all while maximising
the use of local products and services.
Racing the Rains
The project has now entered an acceleration phase. Additional
construction crews are being deployed to open up several work fronts
simultaneously, with dedicated teams assigned to the two weather-sensitive
sections of the route the Mto Mzinga river crossing and Vikundu Marsh with the
goal of completing both within September, ahead of the anticipated El Niño
rains.
In a statement, Rashal Energies Limited said the pipeline is being financed
by Tanzanians, engineered by Tanzanians, and built by Tanzanians for the
benefit of Tanzanian industry and Tanzanian households. The gas, the company
said, belongs to the nation, and the skills to deliver it should belong to
Tanzanians too. Natural gas carried through the pipeline is supplied by TPDC.
An Investment for the Next Generation
The Kisemvule–Mbagala natural gas pipeline is being described as a
defining step in Tanzania's journey toward a greener economy, a stronger
industrial base, and a more capable society. TPDC deserves recognition for
creating an enabling environment that trusts local capacity, but it is the bold
investment, technical discipline, and steady leadership of Farhiya Warsame and
Rashal Energies that are bringing this vision home.
As crews prepare to push through the toughest terrain at Mto Mzinga and Vikundu Marsh ahead of the seasonal rains, Tanzanians have reason to celebrate a homegrown energy champion leading the way toward a cleaner, more self-reliant future.