Construction date for East African Crude Oil Pipeline project postponed

Commencement date of construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project has been postponed due to the sad and untimely demise of Dr. John Pombe Magufuli, the former President of the United Republic of Tanzania.

The construction of the US $3.5bn EACOP project was expected to begin in March after Total Oil Company director for Africa Division Nicolas Terraz assured Uganda’s Foreign Affairs minister Palamagamba Kabudi that all is set for the construction of the pipeline to kick off.

In September last year, President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, and his Tanzanian counterpart, John Magufuli, agreed to hasten the implementation of the EACOP project in a bilateral meeting held in Chato District in Geita. This was a follow-up meeting after Uganda signed the Host Government Agreement (HGA) with Total on the multibillion dollar EACOP Project.

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EACOP project

The billion dollar project set to run from Uganda’s oilfields around Lake Albert to the port of Tanga in Tanzania’s northeast region has been differed to April. The pipeline route was selected by the Government of Uganda as the least cost and most robust.

More than three-quarters of 1,443km crude oil export pipeline will run through Tanzania. Moreover, Tanzania will earn an estimated US $3.24bn and create more than 18,000 jobs over the next 25 years, or more, that the project will be in operation.

Total is the major shareholder in Uganda’s oil fields after agreeing to buy Tullow Oil’s stake in onshore fields. It will work alongside Chinese state-owned CNOOC to develop the Oil reserves that are estimated to have 6bn barrels.