Uganda has issued a final tender to a Total Energies-controlled business to build a $3.5 billion oil pipeline from Uganda to Tanzania.
The final approval will pave the way for the construction of the pipeline that would transport the country’s crude to international markets.
The signature comes after the Ugandan cabinet approved the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Company Limited’s construction of the pipeline on Monday.
With a 62% interest in EACOP, Total Energies is the largest shareholder. Other investors include the Uganda National Oil Company and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation, both of which have 15% stakes, and China’s CNOOC (0883.HK), which has 8%.
Total Energies of France and China National Offshore Oil Corporation struck a $10 billion agreement earlier this year to develop Ugandan oilfields and ship crude to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Tanga via a 1,445-kilometer (900-mile) pipeline.
The project, which includes drilling in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest national park, has been met with fierce opposition from activists and environmental groups who claim it endangers the region’s fragile ecosystem and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has vowed to proceed with the project regardless of the EU resolution, warning that the government would look for other partners in case Total Energies chose to “listen to the EU Parliament”.
The plan is to extract massive crude deposits beneath Lake Albert, a 160-kilometer-long natural border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and ship the oil via the world’s longest heated pipeline.
Museveni has previously praised the project as a significant economic boost for the landlocked country, where many people live in poverty.
