Uganda eyes Lake Albert pipeline law by year-end

Uganda eyes Lake Albert pipeline law by year-end

Dubai, 23 November (Argus) — Uganda expects to have a law in place by the end of this year governing construction of a crude export pipeline from its 230,000 b/d Lake Albert development, paving the way for first oil from the project by the first quarter of 2025.

The $20bn Lake Albert project, which is being jointly developed by TotalEnergies and Chinese state-owned CNOOC, has been mired in bureaucracy for several years following protracted negotiations over upstream contract terms, tax disputes and disagreements over the pipeline's route.

The development involves linking the 190,000 b/d TotalEnergies-operated Tilenga and 40,000 b/d CNOOC-operated Kingfisher oil fields by a 216,000 b/d heated pipeline — the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) — to neighboring Tanzania's Indian Ocean port of Tanga.