East African Crude Oil Pipeline

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), also known as the Uganda–Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline (UTCOP), is a 1,443 km crude oil pipeline in planning since 2013, under construction since 2017. As of December 2025, 79 percent of the construction work had been completed, with first exports expected for October 2026. It is majority owned by TotalEnergies at 62 percent, Uganda's National Oil Company (UNOC) at 15 percent, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) 15 percent and CNOOC at 8 percent. The pipeline is intended to export crude oil from Uganda's Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields to the Port of Tanga, Tanzania on the Indian Ocean.

Uganda wants to develop its oilfields under the two projects Tilenga, operated by TotalEnergies, and Kingfisher, by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). The price of the project has increased to US$5 billion. Financing as of January 2024 remained uncertain, as 24 banks had distanced themselves from the project with only two banks namely South Africa's Standard Bank, through its subsidiary Stanbic Bank Uganda, and Sinosure still advising on the project. In March 2025, African Export-Import Bank and KCB Bank Uganda Limited joined the deal.

Once completed, the pipeline would be the longest electrically heated crude oil pipeline in the world. Because of the large scale displacement of communities and wildlife, the threat to water resources, and contribution to anthropogenic climate change, global environmental groups and the European Union have been protesting its construction and finance. Peaceful activism and protests in Uganda have been met with repression and arrests.