Uganda, Tanzania and the French oil companies Total and Chinese Cnooc signed, on Sunday April 11, several agreements paving the way for the construction of the pipeline that will transport future Ugandan crude to a Tanzanian port on the Indian Ocean, we learned from an official source. The project, operated by Total and Cnooc, provides for the exploitation of fields discovered in 2006 in Uganda, in the region of Lake Albert (west), and the delivery of oil through this pipeline, the East African Crude Oil Pipe Line ( Eacop), at an estimated cost of 3.5 billion dollars (approximately 2.9 billion euros).
The discovery of these reserves had at the time raised the hope, within the Ugandan authorities, to see their country transform into oil El Dorado. But the intimately linked crude oil and pipeline construction projects have become entangled in trade and tax disputes between the parties. The agreements signed Sunday at the presidential palace in Entebbe, near Kampala, in particular by the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, and his Tanzanian counterpart, Samia Suluhu Hassan, should make it possible to unblock the construction of the pipeline.
In a joint final communiqué, the two heads of state note that “All the outstanding problems related to the Eacop project have been resolved amicably” and that’“A shareholding pact has also been signed by all stakeholders”. They agreed accordingly that “Each State takes all the necessary measures for the implementation of the Eacop project” and, having also signed a pricing agreement, added that ” Companies [Total et Cnooc] can now launch the project “.
Environmental risks
Under the waters and on the shores of Lake Albert, a 160 km long natural barrier separating Uganda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lie the equivalent of 6.5 billion barrels of crude, of which about 1, 4 billion recoverable in the current state of discoveries. Uganda’s reserves can last between twenty-five and thirty years, with peak production estimated at 230,000 barrels per day.
The Eacop is a 1,443 km long heated pipeline (including 296 km in Uganda), which will bring Ugandan oil to the port of Tanga, Tanzania. The project is the subject of strong criticism from NGOs who are concerned about its consequences for the environment and for local populations. More than 250 local and international NGOs addressed the 1er March a letter to the large private banks, calling on them not to finance “The longest heated crude oil pipeline in the world”, to the “Widely documented risks” for people, water, nature and climate.