Page 11 - AfrOil Week 23

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

Total accepts Uganda’s request

to speed up work on EACOP

UGANDA THE government of Uganda has informed shareholders’ agreement, a host government
France’s Total that it wants to fast-track the con- agreement (HGA) and a transportation agree-
struction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline ment, and these documents have yet to be final-
(EACOP). ised and brought into alignment with each other,
Ugandan Energy Minister Medard Kale- they said.
mani met with Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s presi- Breuillac expressed optimism on this front,
dent for exploration and production, to discuss saying: “We are now enabled to fast-track final-
the project last week. At the meeting, Kalemani isation of legal and commercial agreements to
said that the French company had accepted his pave the way for the final investment decision
request to accelerate work on EACOP. Work on before commencing implementation,” he stated.
the project is due to begin in March 21 and finish Total and the Ugandan government will
36 months later, but Kampala hopes to see the work with Tanzania to build EACOP along a
pipeline completed ahead of schedule, he stated. 1,445-km route from Hoima, a city near Lake
“This is because the project has been delayed Albert, to Tanga, a port on the shore of the
already,” he remarked. He was apparently refer- Indian Ocean. The link will carry crude oil from
ring to past setbacks in the negotiations that saw Total’s Ugandan fields and will have a capacity of
Total buy its joint venture partner, Tullow Oil 216,000 barrels per day (bpd). ™
(UK/Ireland), out of EACOP and other Ugan-
dan operations.
Breuillac responded by noting that Total was
committed to meeting the Ugandan govern-
ment’s requirements and would strive to uphold
its obligations. “We reiterate our commitments
to comply with national laws and international
standards of practice,” he said.
He also stated that Kampala had taken the
action necessary to push the project forward.
“We commend the government for its co-oper-
ation to ensure the project is a success,” he said.
Kalemani and Breuillac both acknowl-
edged that the parties were not ready to make
a final investment decision (FID) on the pipe-
line yet. This move will follow the signing of a Uganda wants Total to finish EACOP ahead of schedule (Image: PAU)

INVESTMENT
Mozambique expects FID

on Rovuma LNG next year

MOZAMBIQUE MOZAMBIQUE’S National Petroleum Insti- 2020 by around 30%.
tute said last week that it expects ExxonMobil to “The final investment decision of the
make a final investment decision (FID) on the Rovuma LNG project has been postponed to,
Rovuma LNG project next year. However, the in principle, next year,” the institute’s chairman,
US super-major has dismissed the comments as Carlos Zacarias, told media.
speculation. In response, Reuters reported an ExxonMo-
This comes after it recently pushed back the bil spokesman as describing the comments as
FID – which had been expected this year – in the “third-party speculation”. The spokesman added
wake of the oil price collapse when it announced that “Rovuma LNG is a complex project that will
it would cut its capital expenditure budget for take several years to develop”.

Week 23 10•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11