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UNOC representative expects EACOP financing

arrangements to be finalised before December

UGANDA A representative of Uganda National Oil Co. financial institution to have made a commitment
(UNOC) said on September 12 that the East to EACOP.
Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) consor- Nevertheless, Muliisa is not the only party
tium expects to wrap up all arrangements for to be optimistic about securing funding for the
the funding of its $4bn project by the end of pipeline. The Financial Times reported on Sep-
November. tember 13 that a spokesperson for TotalEnergies
According to Peter Muliisa, UNOC’s chief (France), the leader of the EACOP consortium,
legal and corporate affairs officer, the group is said the group was in active negotiations with a
still in the process of negotiating with the banks group of African, Asian and Western financial
prepared to help finance the pipeline, which will institutions and expected to wrap up financing
pump oil from fields in western Uganda to the arrangements and due diligence this year.
Indian Ocean. At least 17 major international banks have EACOP is the
He did not identify any of the lenders declined to finance the EACOP link after
involved in the talks, but Bloomberg quoted him coming under pressure from environmental midstream
as saying that only a few of the 66 banks that had organisations. The list of lenders that have pub-
originally shown interest in financing the project licly announced their decision not to partici- component of
had not submitted the documentation necessary pate includes Barclays (UK), Credit Agricole
to participate. (France), First Rand (South Africa), Mizuho the Lake Albert
Muliisa was speaking the day after the Islamic (Japan) and Morgan Stanley (US). Development
Development Bank (IsDB) revealed that it had EACOP is the midstream component of the
agreed to loan EACOP $100mn, thereby becom- Lake Albert Development Project (LADP), a Project (LADP).
ing the first financial institution to commit to the $10bn initiative that aims to monetise Uganda’s
project. IsDB said in a statement on September as-yet untapped crude oil resources. It envisions
11 that its board of directors had approved the the construction of a 1,443-km pipeline from
credit, which it described as funding for a pub- Hoima in western Uganda to Tanga, a port on
lic-private partnership (PPP). Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast.
“The project will enable Uganda, a landlocked The conduit will carry oil from the Tilenga
country, to emerge as a regional oil producer and Kingfisher oilfields, which TotalEner-
with export capacity to international markets,” gies and China National Offshore Oil Corp.
it said. “The objective of the project is to enable (CNOOC) are due to bring online in 2025, and it
Uganda to exploit its oil reserves and export oil will be heated to compensate for the waxy nature
to international markets through neighbouring of the crude. The fields will eventually see yields
Tanzania.” top 250,000 barrels per day (bpd), with 216,000
As of press time, IsDB remained the only bpd flowing to world markets via EACOP.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 15•September•2022