Page 9 - DMEA Week 31 2021
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DMEA PIPELINES DMEA
EACOP holding company seen “up
and running” by end of September
AFRICA PARTICIPANTS in the East Africa Crude Oil added, this process has moved forward rela-
Pipeline (EACOP) project are reportedly on tively quickly in Tanzania, where all land is state-
track to establish the holding company that will owned. In Uganda, by contrast, the campaign
build and operate the link before the end of next has proceeded more slowly, partly because of
month. different ownership patterns and partly because
According to Martin Tiffen, EACOP’s gen- of the lockdowns the government has imposed
eral manager, TotalEnergies (France) expects to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-
the holding company to be “up and running” by 19) pandemic.
September. Once the new entity is operational, it According to previous reports, the EACOP
will be able to assume responsibility for the pipe- link will run from Hoima, a town in western
line project, which has been in the French major’s Uganda, to Tanga, a port on Tanzania’s coast. It
hands since 2016, he told the Daily Monitor. will handle 216,000 barrels per day of oil from
The holding company should be able to Blocks 1, 1A, 2 and 3A in western Uganda, which
manage the handover seamlessly, Tiffen said. are home to the Kingfisher and Tilenga fields.
“First and foremost, ‘up and running’ implies These fields are due to begin production in 2025
having the new company, with its management, and will eventually yield at least 260,000 bpd of
staff, offices, IT systems, bank accounts, etc. – crude.
everything that [the] EACOP project needs in The pipeline will be built by a consortium in
order to function,” he told the Ugandan newspa- which TotalEnergies is serving as the operator
per. “That’s one key part of the puzzle.” with a 37.5% stake. The remaining equity will be
He went to say that the construction of the divided between China National Offshore Oil
pipeline itself was scheduled to begin in the sec- Corp. (CNOOC), with 37.5%; Uganda National
ond half of next year. This will allow the link to Oil Co. (UNOC), with 15%, and Tanzania Petro-
begin moving oil from western Uganda to the leum Development Corp. (TPDC), with 5%.
Tanzanian coast for export in the first quarter of Both Total and CNOOC are involved in devel-
2025, he noted. oping the oilfields that will provide throughput
In the meantime, he stated, EACOP’s share- for the pipeline; the former company serves as
holders are trying to fast-track land acquisition operator of Tilenga, while the latter is leading
along the 1,445-km route of the pipe. So far, he work at Kingfisher.
Week 31 05•August•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
