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DMEA PIPELINES DMEA

Tanzania, Uganda comment on

start date for EACOP construction

AFRICA TANZANIA and Uganda appear to have slightly shortly after we have finalised FIDs [final invest-
different expectations about the start date for ment decisions], and we expect to conclude the
work on the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline FIDs by the end of March,” he said.
(EACOP), which will pump crude from fields “We are in the final stages of negotiating a
near Lake Albert to the coast of the Indian shareholders’ agreement” on the EACOP pro-
Ocean. ject, he added.
According to Palamagamba Kabudi, the for- Total, for its part, had not commented on the
eign minister of Tanzania, construction may matter as of press time.
begin as soon as mid-March. Kabudi told report- According to previous reports, Total intends
ers in Dar es Salaam last week that France’s Total, to build EACOP along a 1,445-km path from
which is leading the EACOP project, intends to Hoima, a town in western Uganda, to Tanga, a
launch the project in mid-March. After meeting port on Tanzania’s coast.
with Nicolas Terraz, Total’s director for Africa, The pipeline will be able to handle 216,000
during a visit to France last week, he said that barrels per day (bpd) of oil and will carry a price
Total had confirmed its intent to launch work tag of $3.55bn. It will carry crude from Blocks
within the next few weeks. 1, 1A, 2 and 3A in western Uganda, which are
“While in France, I held talks with Total’s home to the Kingfisher and Tilenga oilfields.
director, who assured me that all is set for the These fields may begin production in 2025 and
construction of the pipeline to kick off in the will eventually yield at least 260,000 barrels per
second week of next month,” he said. day (bpd) of crude.
He continued: “The construction of the pipe- Development of the blocks is expected to cost
line will begin in the second half of March. This around $6.7bn and will include the construction
is a great step, and the construction will be com- of two central processing facilities (CPFs) and a
pleted in 2024.” network of local feeder pipelines.
Kabudi was speaking on the same day that Ugandan authorities hope to direct around
Robert Kasande, the permanent secretary 60,000 bpd of oil, or about 23% of anticipated
of Uganda’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral peak production, to a refinery that will turn out
Development, indicated that he expected work petroleum products for the local market. The
on EACOP to begin before the end of March. cost of this facility, which has yet to be built, is
“We expect construction of the pipeline to start likely to reach $480mn.™

Week 09 04•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11