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EACOP will be 1,443 km long (Image: Petroleum Authority of Uganda)

UNOC rep expects EACOP financing

to be finalised before December

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

Week 37 15•September•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9