LUSAKA, Zambia

The presidents of Zambia and Tanzania agreed Sunday on the need to fast-track the upgrading of an over five-decade-old oil pipeline which the two countries share.

The more than 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) Tanzania Zambia Mafuta (TAZAMA) pipeline has been running since 1968 and transports more than a million tons of crude oil per year from the port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania to the city of Ndola in Zambia.

In a statement on his official Facebook page, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema said he met with his Tanzanian counterpart Samia Suluhu Hassan on the sidelines of the 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the pipeline at the top of the meeting's agenda.

"Our meeting was centered on strengthening bilateral relations in the area of trade facilitation and energy investment between our two countries. At the top of the agenda was the TAZAMA project,” said Hichilema, adding the objective is to rehabilitate the pipeline and its auxiliary systems.

The pipeline remains a critical asset for Zambia as the country does not produce crude of its own and is instead dependent on imports from Europe and the Middle East via the port of Dar-es-Salaam.

In a separate post on her official Facebook page, Suluhu Hassan announced the bilateral meeting, adding that her country was keen on ensuring that the project was realized for the mutual benefit of the two nations.

Zambia's current fuel needs hover above a million liters daily and the southern African nation has not been spared from the pressures on the global oil market, with local pump prices for the commodity now fetching around $1.50 a liter.

In his latest statement on the project, Energy Minister Peter Kapala said it would help keep petroleum costs affordable while assuring road transporters that their business would not be impacted as their services would be required simultaneously with the pipeline.