Uganda, Tanzania, oil firms sign accords
France's Total and China's CNOOC own Uganda's oilfields after Britain's Tullow exited the country.
ELIAS BIRYABAREMA
Uganda, Tanzania and oil firms Total and CNOOC signed agreements that will kickstart the construction of a US$3.5 billion crude pipeline to help ship crude to international markets.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Tanzania's new leader Samia Suluhu Hassan, on her first official visit, attended the signing of the three accords that included a host government agreement for the pipeline, a tariff and transportation agreement and a shareholding agreement.
Uganda discovered crude reserves in the Albertine rift basin in the west of the country near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. Government geologists estimated total reserves at 6 billion barrels.
However, the landlocked east African nation needs a pipeline to transport the crude to international markets.
The planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), with a length of 1 445 kilometres, will run from the oilfields to Tanzania's Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.
The project would pose immense threats to local communities, water supplies, and biodiversity in Uganda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.
"This pipeline project can be a core of bigger deployments," said Museveni, adding investors could use the EACOP land corridor to put up another pipeline to ship gas from Tanzania and Mozambique to consumers in Uganda, Rwanda, Congo and other countries in the region.- Nampa/Reuters
Uganda, Tanzania and oil firms Total and CNOOC signed agreements that will kickstart the construction of a US$3.5 billion crude pipeline to help ship crude to international markets.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Tanzania's new leader Samia Suluhu Hassan, on her first official visit, attended the signing of the three accords that included a host government agreement for the pipeline, a tariff and transportation agreement and a shareholding agreement.
Uganda discovered crude reserves in the Albertine rift basin in the west of the country near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. Government geologists estimated total reserves at 6 billion barrels.
However, the landlocked east African nation needs a pipeline to transport the crude to international markets.
The planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), with a length of 1 445 kilometres, will run from the oilfields to Tanzania's Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.
The project would pose immense threats to local communities, water supplies, and biodiversity in Uganda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.
"This pipeline project can be a core of bigger deployments," said Museveni, adding investors could use the EACOP land corridor to put up another pipeline to ship gas from Tanzania and Mozambique to consumers in Uganda, Rwanda, Congo and other countries in the region.- Nampa/Reuters
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