AfrOil: New agreements clear the way for EACOP

The governments of Uganda and Tanzania have joined representatives of France’s Total and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) in finalising host government agreements (HGAs) for the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project.

The signing of these documents on April 11 will pave the way for construction to begin on the 1,445-km pipeline, which will run from Hoima, a town in western Uganda, to Tanga, a port on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast. It will also allow Total and CNOOC to set a schedule for commencing production at the Kingfisher and Tilenga oilfields near Lake Albert.

Uganda’s government had indicated previously that it hoped to see these sites, which were discovered more than a decade ago, come on stream in 2023 or 2024. However, Total has not been able to meet that deadline, partly because of delays stemming from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and partly because of fallout from tax disputes between Kampala and Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland), which is no longer a shareholder in the Lake Albert oilfields.