Another three billion dollars in debt financing is required for the financial close of the five-billion-dollar East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), according to TotalEnergies’ shareholders meeting records for 2023.
Designed to transport crude oil from Lake Albert in Uganda to the Port of Tanga on the Tanzanian coast, the 1,443-km megaproject is currently in its Engineering, Procurement and Construction phase and is estimated to be at least six months away from a Final Investment Decision.
The pipeline has already received two billion dollars in backing from shareholders including TotalEnergies – the project’s lead developer; China National Offshore Corporation (CNOOC); Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC); and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC).
TotalEnergies holds a 62% stake in the pipeline, while UNOC and TPDC each hold 15% and CNOOC holds the remaining eight percent.
Uganda’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Irene Batebe, stated last October that project shareholders are in advanced talks with the China Export & Credit Insurance Company (Sinosure) and the Export-Import Bank of China to cover the remaining debt financing.