Two Indian oil companies are to bid for building a 320-km-long oil pipeline from Kenya to Uganda, according to IANS Wednesday.

The two companies are Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) and Petroleum India International, which have claimed that they will bid for the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) project between the Kenyan port of Mombasa and Eldoret in Uganda.

The Kenyan and Ugandan governments will have 24.5 percent stake in the project with the private sector holding majority stake of at least 51 percent, said the report.

The process of selecting a private investment partner is expected to be completed before the end of this year, with the pipeline targeted for commissioning by August 2007.

India's ONGC Videsh has just completed contruction of a 714-km- long petroleum pipeline in Sudan ahead of schedule.

Source: Xinhua