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EACOP will follow a 1,445-km route from Hoima to Tanga (Image: African Energy Chamber)

Ugandan MPs approve EACOP

Special Provisions Bill 2021

UGANDA UGANDA moved one step closer towards EACOP would also be subject to the country’s
launching commercial hydrocarbon produc- petroleum, environment, immigration, insur-
tion last week, when members of Parliament ance, land and tax laws.
voted to approve a bill designed to facilitate con- Even so, once Museveni signs the bill,
struction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Uganda will be able to join Tanzania, which
(EACOP). passed similar enabling and operationalising
Legislators debated all sections of the draft legislation in August 2021, in laying a founda-
law, known as the EACOP Special Provisions tion for the construction of the EACOP pipeline.
Bill 2021, on December 8. They then scheduled The project is seen as crucial to development of
the vote for December 9 after reaching agree- oilfields in western Uganda near Lake Albert, as
ment on all clauses. Now that the vote has taken it will establish an export route for that produc-
place, Parliament can send the bill to President tion stream.
Yoweri Museveni for signature. According to previous reports, the EACOP
As of press time, Museveni had not said when pipeline will be built by a consortium in which
he expected to finalise the legislation. TotalEnergies (France) is serving as the operator
The EACOP Special Provisions Bill 2021 with a 62% stake. The remaining equity will be
aims to enable and operationalise certain pro- divided between China National Offshore Oil
visions of the Inter-Governmental Agreement Corp. (CNOOC), with 8%; Uganda National
(IGA) signed between Uganda and Tanzania Oil Co. (UNOC), with 15%, and Tanzania Petro-
earlier this year, as well as the Host Government leum Development Corp. (TPDC), with 15%.
Agreement (HGA) signed between Uganda and Both TotalEnergies and CNOOC are
the EACOP group. involved in developing the oilfields that will
It will allow the French-led consortium to provide throughput for the pipeline; the former
meet certain preconditions for beginning con- company serves as operator of Tilenga, while the
struction by filling gaps in Uganda’s existing latter is leading work at Kingfisher.
legal regime that do not make adequate provi- The EACOP pipeline will follow a 1,445-km
sion for or are not consistent with the pipeline route from Hoima, a town in western Uganda, to
scheme. Additionally, it will support the Ugan- Tanga, a port on Tanzania’s coast. It will handle
dan government’s plan to ensure that EACOP’s 216,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Blocks
transport tariffs remain fixed over the lifespan 1, 1A, 2 and 3A in western Uganda, which are
of the project. home to the Kingfisher and Tilenga fields. These
The new law will not completely supplant fields are due to begin production in 2025 and
Uganda’s existing legal regime, local press will eventually yield at least 260,000 bpd of
sources noted last week. They pointed out that crude. ™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 15•December•2021