On Sunday, Uganda, Tanzania and the French oil companies Total and Chinese CNOOC signed several agreements that pave the way for the construction of the pipeline that will transport Ugandan crude oil to a Tanzanian port. A controversial mega-project.
With a length of 1443 km, it will be the longest heated crude oil pipeline in the world. He will travel black gold mined from Lake Albert in Uganda at the Tanzanian port of Tanga before being exported, in particular to total group places or to China.
The construction of this pipeline will be carried out by the French hydrocarbon giant and the Chinese group CNOOC. Estimated cost of the operation: $ 3.5 billion. An investment motivated by the size of the reserves identified in 2006. A total of 6.5 billion barrels are raw underwater in Lake Albert, of which about 21% can be recovered in the current state of discovery. This equates for Uganda to work 25 to 30 years, with a peak production of 230,000 barrels per day.
A project dismissed by NGOs
On Monday at the opening of the session, the Paris Stock Exchange received relatively poorly the agreements signed on Sunday in Kampala: Total share lost 0.15%. A slight drop in the stock market due to criticism from several non-governmental organizations that are concerned about the consequences for the environment and for the population. More than 260 Ugandan, Tanzanian and international associations sent a letter to major private banks on March 1, urging them not to fund a project that poses risks to people, water, nature and the climate.
According to a report published in October by Friends of the Earth and Survival, several “tens of thousands of people” are affected by the entire project. These associations, which launched a legal battle in 2019 against this project, announced their intention to appeal a decision of cassation against a decision of the French judiciary which in December decided to transfer the dispute to a commercial court.
