The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) Company has been awarded the construction license for the 1,443km EACOP from the Ugandan Cabinet.
The license approval follows the filing of the application with the Petroleum Department at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development of Uganda in July 2022, with construction set to commence following the company securing all the required regulatory permissions from the various legislative bodies.
Upon developing the main control monitoring system for the 1,443km project, the EACOP Company can go ahead with the construction of the $4 billion pipeline.
Commenting on the permissions which the EACOP Company will need to secure before going ahead with the construction, Honey Malinga, Acting Director, Petroleum Directorate, stated that the conditions are there to guide the construction process of the project, and that are for “addressing those areas of doubt, so you don’t want anyone to say I didn’t know or I wasn’t told.”
The project will be built across 27 sub-counties, three town councils and 171 villages in 10 districts, with China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering conducting the construction works and Australia’s Worley Parson providing engineering, procurement and construction management services.
Co-owned by global energy major, TotalEnergies, the Uganda National Oil Company, China National Offshore Oil Corporation Uganda and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation, the pipeline will provide a gateway for the East African country to transport crude oil developed from the Tilenga and Kingfisher oilfields for export to both regional and international markets via the Port of Tanga in Tanzania. The pipeline represents part of the larger Lake Albert Development, in which TotalEnergies announced a $10 billion Final Investment Decision in 2022.
The construction license milestone follows the Tanzanian government approving the construction of 1,147 km section of the pipeline in Tanzania and the EACOP Company finalizing the environmental and social impact assessment study for the project.
Upon completion, the pipeline will enable the Ugandan government to earn $400 million in revenue in the form of tax and dividends.
