The Tilenga-EACOP project is among the most controversial for French energy giant TotalEnergies, combining oil drilling in the remote reaches of Uganda with a colossal pipeline to the Tanzanian coast.<\/p>\n
Due to start operating in 2027, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) will be the world\u2019s longest heated oil pipeline, stretching 1,443 kilometres (897 miles) underground from Tilenga and Kingfisher, the first two oil sites in landlocked Uganda, to the Tanzanian port of Tanga on the Indian Ocean coast.<\/p>\n
Tilenga, on the northeastern shore of Lake Albert, will have 426 wells operated by TotalEnergies for the next 20 years.<\/p>\n
The French giant \u2014 which faces a court ruling Thursday in a high-stakes climate trial in France \u2014 also holds shares in Kingfisher, some 30 wells on the southeastern shore of the lake operated by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).<\/p>\n
Uganda\u2019s oil is particularly viscous and must be kept at 50C to be transported through the pipeline, which will be able to transport up to 246,000 barrels per day, with a storage terminal and loading facility at Tanga.<\/p>\n
As of May, the project was 84-percent complete, according to its consortium, comprising TotalEnergies (62-percent stake), Uganda National Oil Company and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (15 percent each), and CNOOC (8 percent).<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Carbon bomb\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Climate scientists and environmentalist groups have raised many concerns.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Climate Accountability Institute has described the project as a \u201ccarbon bomb\u201d that would unleash 379 million tonnes of climate-heating pollution over its lifetime.<\/p>\n
Around 100 Tilenga wells are located in Uganda\u2019s largest and oldest national park, Murchison Falls, and there are fears of leaks from the pipeline that crosses fragile and highly biodiverse ecosystems and wildlife migration routes.<\/p>\n
Earth Insight, an NGO, said it threatens freshwater systems, including 158 Ugandan wetlands, 11 rivers, 44 protected areas and seven key biodiversity areas.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Tanzanian storage and loading areas are located near marine protected areas.<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies says \u201cstrict measures have been taken to avoid, mitigate and offset\u201d the project\u2019s impact on local environments, with efforts to restore thousands of hectares of forest and wetlands and increase biodiversity in affected areas.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Affected communities \u2013<\/p>\n
More than 100,000 people have been displaced by the project, with many criticising limited transparency and insufficient or slow compensation, according to NGOs.<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies says it has compensated 99 percent of households forced to relocate and that the \u201cvast majority\u201d of others will reclaim their land once construction is complete, while generating nearly 80,000 direct and indirect local jobs.<\/p>\n
Opponents of the project say locals have frequently gone to court over \u201cunjust compensation\u201d and face intimidation and arrest by Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities, known for violent repression of dissent.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Legal battles \u2013<\/p>\n
Legal battles have been raging in France for years.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s ruling does not relate specifically to Tilenga-EACOP. It is a civil case brought by NGOs and French cities including Paris, demanding that TotalEnergies align its business with global warming targets under the 2015 Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n
In 2019, several NGOs accused the Tilenga-EACOP project of breaching France\u2019s Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law, which requires companies to avoid grave harm to human rights and the environment. It was dismissed on technical grounds in 2023.<\/p>\n
Another group of NGOS, alongside 26 Ugandan community members, have separately sued for damages related to land expropriation, flooding, free speech violations and other issues.\u00a0The case is due to be heard in February 2027.<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies also faces a criminal case by NGOs accusing it of \u201cglobocide\u201d.<\/p>\n
Four African groups also filed a suit against the project at the East African Court of Justice, but it was dismissed in November on procedural grounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tilenga-EACOP project is among the most controversial for French energy giant TotalEnergies, combining oil drilling in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12699],"tags":[194,15490,5726],"class_list":["post-41253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-totalenergies","tag-international","tag-mna","tag-totalenergies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}