Oil projects in Africa never really for Africans

Ceremonial boats conduct send-off salutations to the vessel that shipped off Kenya’s first oil out of Mombasa on August 26, 2019. [File, Standard]

This week has seen a resurgence of calls for the abandonment of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, following the company's application to the Ugandan government for a licence to start construction. 

Uganda and Tanzania signed an intergovernmental agreement to have the commercially viable oil at the former's Lake Albert basin extracted and transported in a heated pipeline over 1,443km to Tanga Port for export. Up to 1,147km of the would-be world’s longest heated pipeline will be in Tanzania and 296km in Uganda.