The East African Crude Oil Pipeline project is taking shape. EACOP General Manager Martin Tiffen announced that Uganda has started to line up pipe suppliers and land acquisition processes in Tanzania ahead of the kick-off of construction works.
“We have identified four key contractors who are working under conditional award. They will be signed once the legal and commercial framework is completed EACOP has a number of mills and steel suppliers around the world lined up and ready to meet our specification and delivery schedule,” said Tiffen.
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EACOP project
Regarding land acquisition, Mr Tiffen said, the focus is on priority areas, such as construction yards, the main camp, piping yards and the thermal insulation plant. 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.
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.