• Tanzanian government approves the execution of the project.

• Capacity of the crude oil pipeline.

• EACOP general managers comment.

• Challenges of the project.

• Companies in charge of the project.

The Tanzanian government approved the construction of a $3.5 billion crude oil pipeline.

The oil construction project is a 1,443-kilometre (900 miles) pipeline that will transport crude from large oilfields under development in Lake Albert in northwestern Uganda to a Tanzania port on the Indian Ocean.

For the execution, the pipeline required approval from both countries, and last month Uganda issued a license to the project operator, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

During the occasion to receive the approval certificate, the EACOP Tanzania General Manager, Wendy Brown said that “this construction approval marks another step forward to EACOP as it allows commencement of the main construction activities in Tanzania, upon completion of the ongoing land access process”.

However, rights activists and environmental organizations have voiced their vehement opposition to the $10 billion oilfields and pipeline project, claiming that it threatens the region’s delicate ecosystem and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), France’s TotalEnergies, and the publicly traded Uganda National Oil Company are all working together to develop it.