The plant was commissioned as an oil refinery in the 1960s. It was then known as the Tanzanian and Italian Petroleum Refining Company Limited (TIPER), owned jointly by the GoT and Agip (Tanzania) Limited.[6] After the signing of the agreement in 1963, it was built by the Italian state-owned Eni between February 1965 and June 1966 at a cost of TSh 100 million.