East African Crude Oil Pipeline

EACOP-route

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) Route

 
The EACOP is a transboundary 1,443km pipeline which starts in Hoima District in Uganda and terminates at Tanga port in Tanzania. Within Uganda, it traverses 296km through ten (10) districts (that is Kikuube, Hoima, Kakumiro, Kyankwazi, Mubende, Gomba, Sembabule, Lwengo, Rakai and Kyotera); involving twenty-five (25) sub-counties and one hundred seventy-one (171) villages; while in Tanzania, it traverses eight regions (Kagera, Geita, Shinyaga, Tabora, Singida, Dodoma, Manyara and Tanga) involving twenty (20) districts.
  • The pipeline route was selected by the Government of Uganda as the least cost and most robust.
  • Due to the viscous and waxy nature of Uganda’s crude oil, the pipeline will need to be heated along the entire route, making the EACOP the longest electrically heated pipeline in the world.
  • The pipeline will be buried to minimize impact on the environment, with some facilities above the ground, designed to ensure minimal environmental and social impact.
  • The project will be compliant with the Ugandan and Tanzanian national legislations and international requirements.
  • The Marine Export Storage Terminal and the Load-Out Facility will be located north of Tanga port over the Chongoleani peninsula.
 

Progress on EACOP:


The Inter-Government Agreement (IGA) for the crude export pipeline was signed in May 2017, following which the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for the EACOP was carried out and approved by the Petroleum Authority of Uganda in October 2020.

The Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) for the project has been completed and approved by the Chief Government Valuer. The RAP Implementation process is ongoing.

The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) studies for the EACOP were approved and the certificate issued by NEMA in December 2020.

Host Government Agreements (HGA) for both Uganda and Tanzania, Shareholders Agreement (SHA) and Tariff & Transportation Agreement (TTA) were signed in April 2021. These agreements are required to provide a robust commercial and legal structure for the Project which is critical to achieving project financing and project viability for several decades.

EACOP is project financed with the debt equity ratio at 60:40. The process of raising the debt component under project finance for EACOP is underway.

Conditional Letters of Award for the critical contracts (Early Civil Works for Lot 2 in Tanzania, Electrical Instrumentation and Telecommunication Systems (EITS), Pipeline Construction, construction of Above Ground Installations, Tanks Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC), Jetty EPC, Terminal EPC and Thermal Insulation (coating)) for EACOP have been issued to the contractors. This is mainly to de-risk the execution schedule.

Detailed engineering activities including optimization and development of the alignment sheets for the pipeline are ongoing.

For more information, please go to the project website