East Africa—can we talk?

East Africa's new oil producers could maximise the industry's potential by working together, but that's easier said than done

It was not long ago that East Africa was the shining frontier of the continent's oil scene. Uganda sparked the rush after wildcatters ventured deep inland and made Africa's largest onshore discoveries in decades in 2006. The successful run continued with new oilfields discovered in Kenya's northwestern Turkana region in 2012. At the time, with crude prices averaging almost $112 per barrel, hopes grew that the fresh oil discoveries could be linked up with a new regional pipeline network stretching from producing oilfields in neighbouring South Sudan across East Africa and then to the coast. Yet, a little over a decade after the first new large oil finds were made in East Africa, little has be