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Tanzania gearing up for HGA

talks on EACOP with Total

TANZANIA TANZANIA’S government reportedly expects agreement and the land lease tenure. “Once the
to begin negotiations with France’s Total on a agreements are completed, the project will reach
host government agreement (HGA) for the con- the final investment decision (FID), which sets
struction of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline the stage for further development of the project,”
(EACOP) in the near future. he told The Citizen.
According to Salum Mnuna, EACOP’s Total, Uganda and Tanzania hope to build
national co-ordinator in Tanzania, the French EACOP along a 1,445-km route from Hoima,
company is already discussing the HGA with the a city near Lake Albert, to Tanga, a port on the
Ugandan government. Total and Kampala were shore of the Indian Ocean. The link will carry
able to begin these talks after the former final- crude oil from Blocks 1, 1A, 2 and 3A in western
ised the acquisition of additional equity stakes Uganda and will have a capacity of 216,000 bar-
in the pipeline and in the Ugandan oilfields that rels per day (bpd). Total has a majority stake in
will be used to fill the link from Tullow Oil (UK/ all four blocks and in the pipeline since acquir-
Ireland), he told The Citizen. ing Tullow’s 33.3334% stakes in those assets ear-
Once these discussions have been completed, lier this year. ™
Total’s next step will be to start HGA negotia-
tions with Tanzania, he said. “The team which
is currently undertaking HGA negotiations in
Uganda is the one that will engage with us here,”
he noted.
He indicated that the Tanzanian government
had already wrapped up most of its prepara-
tions for these talks but was still waiting for the
National Environment Management Council
(NEMC) to complete and issue an environmen-
tal impact assessment (EIA) certificate. Discus-
sions with Total are on track to begin very soon
and should be completed by the end of Septem-
ber, he stated.
Once the HGA is finalised, Mnuna said,
the parties will then work on the other agree-
ments needed to start construction – namely,
the shareholders’ agreement (SHA), the ports EACOP will be 1,445 km long (Image: Uganda Business Centre)

INVESTMENT
Sound Energy signs HoT with

Moroccan firm for micro-LNG project

MOROCCO UK-LISTED Sound Energy has taken a step exclusive negotiations with each other until
towards teaming up with a local partner to dis- December 31.
tribute and market production from the small- The goal of these discussions, the statement
scale gas liquefaction plant it intends to build at said, is for Sound Energy to negotiate “agree-
the Tendrara licence area in eastern Morocco. ments for both the purchase of LNG to be pro-
In a statement, Sound Energy said it had duced from the TE-5 Horst development, as well
entered into a heads of terms (HoT) with a as the partial financing of the Phase 1 Develop-
Moroccan conglomerate on June 26. It did not ment by the partner.”
identify the Moroccan firm, but it did say that One of the agreements the companies will
the HoT provided for the two sides to conduct discuss is a gas sales deal.

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