Oil & Gas

The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is advancing rapidly despite past funding delays and strong opposition from environmental groups. The $5 billion project is now 64.5% complete, with $3.6 billion already utilized and additional funding secured to ensure its progress.

EACOP is set to become the world’s longest heated oil pipeline, transporting crude oil from Uganda’s Lake Albert region to Tanzania’s coast, where it will be exported to global markets. Uganda is expected to debut as an oil exporter with an initial production of 216,000 barrels per day, later rising to 246,000 barrels per day, according to government plans.

The project’s ownership structure includes TotalEnergies with a 62% stake, Uganda and Tanzania’s national oil companies holding 15% each, and China’s CNOOC with 8%. TotalEnergies, also leading the Tilenga oil project, emphasized that both Tilenga and EACOP are designed to operate with low emissions.

TotalEnergies has pledged that EACOP will be one of its lowest-emission projects, with Scope 1 and 2 intensities averaging 12 kg of CO2 equivalent per barrel. Over its lifetime, the combined carbon emissions of Tilenga and EACOP are projected to reach 13.5 million tons, a point meant to reassure critics of its environmental impact.