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Ugandan law firm files suit to

force audit of EACOP procurement

AFRICA MUWEMA & Co. Advocates, a Kampala-based the defendants from engaging in procurement
law firm, has filed suit in the High Court of activities that do not comply with local laws
Uganda in a bid to halt work on the East Africa and regulations and urges the court to rule that
Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and related all income generated by the EACOP project be
upstream projects. designated as taxable in Uganda. PML pointed
In documents submitted to the court and out that Muwema & Co. was not the first party
cited by PML Daily, Andrew Oluka, one of the to issue a legal challenge to the EACOP project.
firm’s advocates, said that Muwema & Co. had Last November, it noted, four non-govern-
initiated legal action in order to put an end to vio- mental organisations (NGOs) asked the East
lations of Ugandan local content requirements. African Court of Justice to block construction of
The suit aims to force a review of procure- the pipeline.
ment processes related to the EACOP project According to previous reports, those NGOs
and “make sure that local Ugandan companies are the Africa Institute for Energy Governance
and service providers are involved in the project, (Uganda), the Centre for Food and Adequate
as provided in the constitution under provision Living Rights (Uganda), the Centre for Strategic
of national content,” he wrote. Litigation (Tanzania) and Natural Justice-Kenya.
The lawsuit names the Petroleum Authority The government of Uganda and Tanzania
of Uganda (PAU) and the two foreign companies joined TotalEnergies and CNOOC in finalising
involved in EACOP, China National Offshore agreements on the EACOP scheme in April of
Oil Corp. (CNOOC) and France’s TotalEnergies, this year. The total cost of building the link is
as defendants. expected to reach $3.55bn.
It accuses these three parties of engaging in EACOP is slated to follow a 1,445-km path
$7.5bn worth of unauthorised procurement from Hoima, a town in western Uganda, to
activities, including $5bn related to EACOP and Tanga, a port on Tanzania’s coast.
another $2.5bn related to the development of The pipeline will be built by a consortium in
the Kingfisher and Tilenga oilfields near Lake which Total is serving as operator, with a 37.5%
Albert. stake. The remaining equity in the group is
The documents describe the unauthorised divided between China National Offshore Oil
procurement activities as publishing expressions Corp. (CNOOC), with 37.5%; Uganda National
of interest (EoI) notices that did not reserve cer- Oil Co. (UNOC), with 15%, and Tanzania Petro-
tain contracts for Ugandan companies. leum Development Corp. (TPDC), with 5%.
In the suit, Oluka alleged that these EoI Both Total and CNOOC are involved in
notices contravened local content requirements developing the Kingfisher and Tilenga oilfields,
that give Ugandan companies priority and which will provide throughput for the pipeline.
sought relief in the form of a High Court order These fields are due to begin production in
directing PAU to conduct a formal audit of pro- 2025 and will eventually yield at least 260,000
curement processes. barrels per day of crude. EACOP will carry most
Additionally, he requested that the court bar of the oil, or around 216,000 bpd.™

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