Tanzania said on Wednesday it was planning to build a pipeline to supply natural gas to neighbouring Uganda as it looks to export some of the huge offshore gas reserves discovered in recent years.

East Africa is a new hotspot for hydrocarbons exploration after substantial oil deposits were found in Uganda and major gas reserves discovered in Tanzania and Mozambique.

The gas pipeline is the latest move to deepen commercial ties between Tanzania and Uganda, which said last month that it would ship its crude oil via a pipeline through Tanzania to Tanga port.

“Several East African countries have asked to buy gas from Tanzania... to start with, the (Tanzanian) government plans to build a gas pipeline to Uganda,” Tanzania’s Energy and Minerals ministry said in a statement.

Tanzania announced in February it has discovered an additional 2.17 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of possible natural gas deposits in an onshore field, raising its total estimated recoverable natural gas reserves to more than 57 tcf.

Officials said the government was already seeking funding for the project, but did not reveal how much it would cost.

The time frame for the project would depend on availability of funds but work would start immediately after funding is secured, according to the statement.

Tanzania last year commissioned a 532 kilometre (330 mile) pipeline and gas processing plants from gas fields south of the country to its commercial capital Dar es Salaam, financed by a $1.2 billion Chinese loan.

Most of the gas discoveries in Tanzania were made in offshore, deep-sea blocks south of the country near the site of a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.

BG Group, acquired by Royal Dutch Shell, along with Statoil, Exxon Mobil and Ophir Energy plan to build the onshore LNG export terminal in the southern Tanzanian town of Lindi.

They’re partnering with State-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp (TPDC).

Besides the gas pipeline, Uganda is also looking to build a pipeline to export its oil through Tanzania although it originally favoured a route though Kenya.

France’s Total, one of the oil firms developing Uganda’s fields, had raised security concerns about the Kenyan route.

A Kenyan pipeline could at points run near Somalia, from where militants have launched attacks on Kenya.

READ: Kenya to build own pipeline as Uganda favours Tanga port

Tullow Oil, with stakes in both countries, had backed the Kenyan route, saying it would be cheaper if oil from both pipelines followed the same route.

Picking a route for the pipelines is vital for the oil companies’ final investment decisions on developing Uganda’s and Kenya’s reserves, which are among a string of oil and gas finds on Africa’s east coast.

Uganda said the cost of pumping its crude oil via a pipeline through Tanzania will be capped at $12.20 per barrel although the two had yet to agree a final levy in a project likely to be a public private partnership. The pipeline is expected to be ready by 2020.