East African Crude Oil Pipeline: Uganda, Tanzania Sign Deal

Uganda and Tanzania have signed three key agreements aimed at developing Uganda’s oil and gas industry. The signing of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), agreement was done on Sunday, April 11, 2021 for Uganda by President, Yoweri Museveni and for Tanzania by President, Samia Suluhu Hassan who was on her first trip abroad. The three accords signed by the two leaders include; a host government agreement for the pipeline, a tariff and transportation agreement and a shareholding agreement.

The two countries entered a partnership to build a 1,443km oil pipeline to pump Uganda’s oil from the Albertine basin in the west of the country, to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Tanga. When built, the $3.5bn pipeline project will be the longest heated oil pipeline in the world. A final investment decision, a commitment of funds will have to be reached by the two countries and oil companies before the pipeline construction can begin.

Once completed, more than 10,000 jobs opportunities will be created during execution, according to President Samia Suluhu. Speaking during the signing ceremony, President Museveni said, “The pipeline project can be a core of bigger deployments with investors capable of using 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 at a lower cost.”