Following the decision by the government of Uganda to route is crude oil southwards to Tanzania’s Northeastern Port of Tanga, both governments pledged to expedite the project and work was expected to start this August 2016.

However, the need to make necessary evaluation on the Fiscal framework, Size of the pipeline corridor, and Set of time-bound actions, pushed the commencement date to January 2017.

An Inter-ministerial committee is expected to meet this  October to review the following assignments;

• A task to both Governments (of Uganda and Tanzania) harmonize the various fiscal packages offered for the pipeline, and these fiscal frameworks will be included in the Inter Government Agreements (IGA).
• A task to both governments and International Oil Companies (IOCc) to come with the exact size of the pipeline corridor.
• A task to the Ministerial committee to develop a project schedule and workout modalities to expedite all necessary approvals, including land access, environmental and societal aspects, routing, project agreements and other activities requiring national or Local Government consents.

Below are the facts about Uganda–Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline.

Inter-Ministerial meeting held in July adopted East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to be the name of the pipeline following a proposal by the project steering committee.

According to plan EACOP will start in Buseruka sub-county, Hoima District, in Uganda’s Western Region. It will travel in a general southeasterly direction to pass through Masaka, Bukoba in Tanzania, loop around the southern shores of Lake Victoria, continue through Shinyanga and Siginda, to end in Tanga, a distance of approximately 1,410 kilometres (880 mi).

Uganda previously agreed to build a joint Uganda–Kenya Crude Oil Pipeline to the Kenyan port of Lamu.

Concerns regarding security and cost, however, motivated parallel negotiations with Tanzania regarding a shorter and safer route to Port Tanga, with the support of the French petroleum conglomerate Total SA.

It is expected that the project would last three years at a budgeted cost of US$4 billion. Tanzanian President John Magufuli told the media earlier that the infrastructure would offer approximately 15,000 construction jobs and between 1,000 and 2,000 permanent jobs.

Total E&P who is the major player in the project is prepared to spend US$4 billion to fund construction of this pipeline.

See map of the proposed Pipeline Route