Uganda–Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), also known as the Uganda–Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline (UTCOP), is a 1,443 km crude oil pipeline in planning since 2013, with a foundation stone nominally under construction since 2017, and is intended to transport crude oil from Uganda's Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields to the Port of Tanga, Tanzania on the Indian Ocean.

Uganda wants to develop its oilfields under the two projects Tilenga, operated by TotalEnergies, and Kingfisher, by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). In 2021, EACOP was owned by TotalEnergies at 65 percent, Uganda's National Oil Company (UNOC) at 15 percent, Tanzania at 15 per cent and CNOOC at 5 percent. The price of the project has increased to US$5 billion. Financing as of January 2024 remained uncertain, as 24 banks have distanced themselves from the project with only two banks namely Standard Bank, through its subsidiary Stanbic Bank Uganda, and Sinosure still advising on the project.

Once completed, the pipeline would be the longest electrically heated crude oil pipeline in the world. Because of the large scale displacement of communities and wildlife, the threat to water resources, and contribution to anthropogenic climate change, global environmental groups and the European Union have been protesting its construction and finance. Peaceful activism and protests in Uganda have been met with repression and arrests.

Location

As of March 2016, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) was to start in Buseruka sub-county, Hoima District, at the Lake Albert (Africa) basin in Uganda's Western Region. It would travel along the Albertine Rift in a general south-easterly direction to pass through Rakai District in Uganda, Bukoba in Tanzania, loop around the southern shores of Lake Victoria, continue through Shinyanga and Singida, to end on the Chongoleani peninsula near the Port of Tanga, for export a distance of approximately .

In 2006, the Kingfisher oil field was discovered on the eastern bank of Lake Albert, the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, spread over 344 square km in the Albertine Rift basin in western Uganda. The Kingfisher project will be developed by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The Tilenga oil fields are located Northeast of the Kingfisher oilfield in the Buliisa and Nwoya districts. TotalEnergies has been planning to operate the Tilenga project (56.6%), in partnership with CNOOC and Uganda's National Oil Company (UNOC) by developing six fields, one of which is located inside Murchison Falls National Park and to drill roughly 400 wells at 31 locations. Buried pipelines would deliver the raw material to an oil treatment plant built in Kasenyi, to separate and treat the fluids.

Overview

As of 2015, Uganda proven oil resources (oil in place) exceeded 6.5 billion barrels, of which about 2.2 billion barrels were recoverable.

In 2013, Uganda had agreed to build a joint Uganda–Kenya Crude Oil Pipeline to the Kenyan port of Lamu. In 2015, concerns regarding security and cost, however, motivated parallel negotiations with Tanzania regarding a shorter and safer route to Port of Tanga, with the support of TotalEnergies.

In April 2016, at the 13th Northern Corridor Heads of State Summit in Kampala, Uganda officially chose the Tanzania route for its crude oil, in preference to the Mombasa or Lamu routes through Kenya. The presidents of Kenya and Rwanda were present, along with representatives from Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Tanzania. At the same conference, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that Kenya would build the Kenya Crude Oil Pipeline on its own, thereby abandoning the Uganda–Kenya Crude Oil Pipeline.
As of August 2017, the pipeline was planned to have a capacity of 216,000 barrels of crude oil per day. to be in diameter, and Uganda was to pay Tanzania US$12.20 for every barrel flowing through the pipeline.

In December 2021, the Ugandan parliament passed the ''East African Crude Oil Pipeline Special Provisions Bill'' into Ugandan law which governs the country's participation in the then estimated US$3.5 billion construction, operations and maintenance. Uganda's contribution was estimated at US$293 million, of which US$130 million had been paid in advance. A similar law had been passed by the Parliament of Tanzania, in August 2021.

Cost and timetable

As of March 2016, construction was planned to start in August 2016 and expected to last three years at a cost of US$4 billion, providing approximately 15,000 construction jobs and 1,000 to 2,000 permanent jobs. In March 2016, the ''Daily Monitor'' newspaper reported that Total E&P was prepared to spend US$4 billion (UGX:13 trillion) to fund EACOP construction. In July 2016, following meetings between delegations led by the oil ministers of Tanzania and Uganda, held in Hoima, it was announced that construction of the pipeline would begin in January 2017, and completion was planned for 2020.

As of August 2017, the construction budget for the pipeline was US$3.5 billion.

In September 2020, TotalEnergies and the government of Uganda signed a host government agreement about Total's rights and obligations with respect to the development, construction, and operation of EACOP, at State House Entebbe with an expected final investment decision by the end of 2020. Two days later in September 2020, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania signed an agreement in Chato, Tanzania to jointly construct the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, at an estimated cost of US$3.5 billion. Work was scheduled to start by the end of 2020. Construction was expected to last about 36 months.

In October 2020, TotalEnergies and the Government of Tanzania signed a host government agreement to govern the dealings between them regarding the EACOP, as 70 percent will pass through Tanzanian territory. Laying of the pipeline was anticipated to begin during the first quarter of 2021.

In April 2021, presidents Museveni of Uganda and Samia Suluhu of Tanzania met in Entebbe, Uganda with Patrick Pouyanné, the Chairman/CEO of TotalEnergies and Chen Zhuoubiao, President of CNOOC Uganda along with Ugandan and Tanzanian technocrats, lawyers and government ministers, to sign a number of agreements, allowing construction to begin. Construction was slated to begin in July 2021, with first oil anticipated in 2025.

In August 2021, the project cost had risen to US$5 billion, of which $2 billion were to be raised by the owners of the pipeline as equity investment and the remaining $3 billion were to be borrowed from external sources.

As of September 2024, as reported by '' The Citizen'', 47 percent of the pipeline had been laid, with completion scheduled for July 2026. As of March 2025, more than 50 percent of the pipeline had been built. The project employs over 8,000 Tanzanians and Ugandans.