EACOP consortium reportedly close to signing pipe supply agreements

The consortium set up to build and operate the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is reportedly close to finalising arrangements with future suppliers of steel pipe.

According to Martin Tiffen, the general manager of the consortium, TotalEnergies (France) and the other investors in EACOP have not yet signed the main supply agreements for the pipeline. The group will take this step once the necessary legal and commercial framework for the project has been established, he said during the Uganda International Oil and Gas Summit (UIOGS), a two-day virtual event held last week.

Tiffen did not say exactly when the EACOP consortium might be able to sign these supply deals. He did report, however, that the group had “identified four key contractors who are working under conditional award.” A number of steel mills and pipe suppliers around the world have already indicated that they are ready to meet EACOP’s specifications and delivery deadlines, he stated, without naming any potential partners.

In the meantime, the EACOP head said, Uganda’s government is working to move forward with land acquisition processes along the proposed route of the pipeline. Officials in Kampala are focusing on taking control of the sites needed for high-priority facilities such as construction yards, piping yards, a thermal insulation plant and the main work camp, he noted.

The EACOP pipeline will be built by a consortium in which TotalEnergies is serving as the operator with a 37.5% stake. The remaining equity has been split between China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), with 37.5%; Uganda National Oil Co. (UNOC), with 15%, and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp. (TPDC), with 5%. Both Total and CNOOC are involved in developing the Ugandan oilfields that will provide throughput for the pipeline.

EACOP is slated to follow a 1,445-km route from Hoima, a town in western Uganda, to Tanga, a port on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast. It will handle 216,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Blocks 1, 1A, 2 and 3A in western Uganda, which are home to the Kingfisher and Tilenga fields. These two sites are due to begin production in 2025 and will eventually yield at least 260,000 bpd of crude.