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.
Poverty bites as locals in oil fields wait for pay-out
Monday April 19 2021
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As government continues to prospect and explore oil wells in parts of western, central and northern regions, scores of homesteads that have been displaced by the quest to have oil exports ready by 2025 have lost farmlands.
In Kakumiro District in western Uganda, more than 200 people affected by the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) have cited delayed compensation of their properties in the wake of signing of the tripartite pipeline between oil companies and Uganda and Tanzania governments.
Daily Monitor has established that the affected persons are mainly from Mpasana, Kisiita, Katikara, and Ntoroko sub-counties in Kakumiro.
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Murchison Falls, Uganda. Rod Waddington via flickr.com
Like many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda finds itself with a steadily growing population and emerging economy. Simultaneously, the government struggles to provide basic services to its growing population, while preserving its natural resources.
Encapsulated within this struggle is an ongoing debate between conservationists and the Ugandan government over the construction of hydroelectric dams in the Murchison Falls National Park. The struggle centers around two waterfalls that the park houses, Murchison and Uhuru Falls. Proposals to dam Murchison Falls, one of the world’s most powerful and one of Uganda’s main tourist attractions, were abandoned after strong opposition from the public, environmental conservationists, and Uganda’s tourist industry.
“The crude oil pipeline will threaten water resources, biodiversity and Uganda’s oldest and largest nature reserve, the Murchison Falls National Park, which would be opened up to large-scale oil extraction at a time when the world is acting to urgently reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. The project will also have severe impacts on local communities rights. “No matter how you look at it, oil is highly risky and has significant potential to damage the environment and put surrounding communities in peril. East Africa has some of the best renewable energy resources in the world, and these resources should be maximised as governments shift away from fossil fuels in a people-centred just transition.
Total’s $5.1-billion Lake Albert development with CNOOC brings Uganda into the club of oil-producing nations while it positions the French major as the dominant player in African oil and gas.