Uganda’s $5-Billion Oil Export Pipeline Secures Initial Funding

The $5-billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which is planned to export crude oil from Uganda via a port in Tanzania, has secured the first tranche of external financing for the project.

EACOP Ltd., the company in charge of the construction and future operation of the project, said that it had closed the first tranche of external financing. The funding is being provided by a syndicate of financial institutions, including regional banks such as African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank), The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited, KCB Bank Uganda, and The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD).

The first external financing is for about $1 billion, and two additional funding tranches are expected, media in Uganda report.

Last year, Africa’s top lender, Standard Bank, said it expects to help fund part of the planned $5-billion controversial project that has had environmental campaigners call on banks to abandon financing for the pipeline.

The EACOP project is for a 1,443-kilometer-long (897 miles) pipeline to be built from landlocked Uganda to the Tanga port in Tanzania. The oil pipeline is expected to bring crude from the Lake Albert project in Uganda to the international oil market. It is designed to transport 216,000 barrels of crude oil per day, with a ramp-up of up to 246,000 bpd, Uganda says.

The successful closing of this first tranche of external financing “represents a significant milestone for EACOP and its shareholders,” EACOP Ltd said.

These shareholders are France’s supermajor TotalEnergies with a 62% stake, Uganda National Oil Company Limited (UNOC) with 15%, Tanzania

Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) holding another 15%, and CNOOC, the state oil giant of China, with an 8% interest.

The construction of the pipeline is progressing well in Uganda and Tanzania, EACOP Ltd said, noting that the overall project progress exceeded 50% at the end of 2024.