Page 10 - DMEA Week 45 2022

DMEA COMPANIES DMEA

The gas fields contain proven reserves of meth- production. However, the plant was tempo-
ane-rich natural gas with one of the richest rarily halted in October to repair a utility issue
helium concentrations recorded globally. The detected while commissioning the helium plant,
company’s strategy is to expand the project with the company said.
a staged construction of a new helium and LNG The delayed commissioning of Phase 1 of the
plant. Virginia plant has resulted in additional costs
In late September, Renergen completed a and lost revenue. According to Mining Weekly,
commissioning process on the Virginia gas the proposed capital raise would have been used
project LNG plant and reported its first gas to shore up the company’s balance sheet. ™

PIPELINES
East African Legislative Assembly

members defend EACOP project

AFRICA SEVERAL members of the East African Legis- to EU institutions, saying: “We need to have a
lative Assembly (EALA) have spoken in favour stronger say, maybe continentally, to work in
of a controversial oil transportation project co-ordination.”
planned in Uganda and Tanzania, arguing that Suzan Nakuwuki, an EALA member from
the EU had no standing to call for the suspen- Uganda, also stressed the sovereignty of the
sion of a project that is not being carried out on countries taking part in EACOP but struck a
European territory. more confrontational note. “The EU parlia-
Speaking during an EALA session in Kigali, ment is over-legislating,” she said. “What they
Manasseh Nshuti, Rwanda’s Minister of State should do is go back [the] to EU and focus on
in charge of East African Community (EAC) the [issues] that affect the people of the Euro-
affairs, spoke critically about the European pean Union.”
Parliament’s adoption in September of an Meanwhile, George Odongo, an EALA
emergency resolution condemning the East member from South Sudan, argued that the
Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and related EU’s desire to shelve EACOP had the potential
projects. to deprive Uganda and Tanzania of the oppor-
He stressed that Uganda and Tanzania, tunity to develop a new revenue stream that
which had agreed to host EACOP, were both would support economic growth. “What this
sovereign states. “When you talk about [the] criticism of the pipeline essentially means is
European Parliament, it is as if we owe our lives that we should maintain the status quo so that
to them. I don’t think we do,” he was quoted as those who are already producing continue to
saying by The East African. produce and the rest of us who are poor but
He also suggested that Africa find a better have the resources continue to remain poor,” he
method of communicating its own positions commented.

The proposed pipeline will be 1,443 km long (Image: EACOP)

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 10•November•2022