by Mongabay.com on 19 April 2021
The $3.5 billion heated oil pipeline will connect oil fields in the Lake Albert basin in western Uganda to the port of Tanga on the Tanzanian coast.
Developed by French oil major Total and Chinese state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the project has faced staunch opposition from environmentalists who point out that it cuts through some of East Africa’s most biodiversity-rich areas.
The path of the pipeline will impact almost 2,000 square kilometers (770 square miles) of protected areas, a quarter of that the habitat of eastern chimpanzees and African savanna elephants, and displace more than 12,000 families.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Tanzanian President Samia Hassan Suluhu signed an agreement to contruct the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
The $3.55 billion pipeline will stretch from Uganda’s Albertine Graben region, where commercially viable oil deposits were discovered in 2006, to the Tanzanian port of Tanga. At 1,440 km, the pipeline will be the largest heated pipeline in the world and connect two oil fields the Kingfisher field, operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd (CNOOC), and the Tilenga field, operated by Total S.A. Contruction is anticipated to take three years, opening up the pipeline for commercial use by 2025 at the earliest.
Uganda scores tax victory in oil Host Government Agreement
April 14, 2021 President Yoweri Museveni signing the oil agreements
In signing the Host Government Agreement for the East Africa Oil Pipeline on April 11, 2021, the Uganda government scored a major victory in ensuring that the project company is made resident in the country largely for tax purposes.
While the Host Government Agreement (HGA) will allow the project company – a special purpose vehicle - for the East Africa crude oil pipeline to be registered somewhere in England, in what is expected to be a tax haven, the company will be taken as a resident of Uganda, and will abide by the country’s tax rules.