The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa has revealed that oil producing African countries are ready to support the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project despite the external pressures from the West.
Minister Nankabirwa made this revelation while speaking at the ongoing 10th East African Petroleum Conference and Exhibition 2023 at Serena Hotel Kampala. She said although financing is a serious impediment in the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas, she is not scared because Africa is not poor.
“We are just lacking some finances but we are not poor, Uganda is not poor and is open to friends. So, the financing institution must hear this as banks plan to pull out because of the narrative of fossil fuel, we are watching as Africans. We are opening doors, Africa is getting together and as petroleum-producing countries in Africa, we are coming up with a bank which will target investing in infrastructure such as refineries, and crude oil pipelines. We are watching, we cannot be the same as if we don’t have ears,” she said.
“when it comes to exploitation and development you chicken away! You leave us in the middle! So why did we do the exploration, for you guys to take away the oil? How do you take it out without this infrastructure? The crude oil pipeline is an infrastructure that would carry this oil outside,” said Nankabirwa.
She also noted that it is not fair for financing institutions to pull out of such big projects when they financed the exploration. She however asserted that Africa may not have enough finances but they have started looking for funding from alternative sources.
“We are closely watching international financing institutions that are burying their heads in the sand at a time when Africa is fighting energy poverty. I can assure you we shall get the funding needed for the East African Crude Oil Project.
It’s not fair to let Africans cut down trees in search of firewood because we can not afford to cook using electricity, we don’t have enough of it, we have not even invested in its distribution so that every home gets this electricity and you’re telling me to transit, this is drama! Pull my hand so I may also develop this resource responsibly because we are aware of the environmental issues.”
Nankabirwa revealed that the reason why Uganda does not allow Total and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to flare the gas is because they know the danger.
“We don’t allow them to vent, we want to harvest the gas so that we can use it in beverages and many other things. Pull my hand as Africa so that I save people from cutting down trees for charcoal and firewood.”
The minister’s statement comes at a time when Standard Chartered Bank, one of the potential financiers of EACOP, a few weeks ago withdrew from the $5 billion project after activists said it could generate seven times more carbon emissions per year than it has been the case in the country.
The bank said that it isn’t involved in the financing” of the 1,443km crude pipeline from the oilfields in western Uganda to the Indian Ocean coast of Tanzania. As of now, China is the only realistic source of finance for the project.
Meanwhile, between 2022 and 2025, the project is expected to undertake land acquisition, contract award, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning, including hydro-testing, and first oil from upstream facilities.
However, the project has been challenged by local and international environmental and human rights activists, who say new fossil fuel projects are a ticking climate bomb that should be abandoned in favour of renewable energy.
The European Union Parliament has backed the activists, and passed a resolution denouncing the project last year, arguing that the pipeline will produce 34 million tonnes of emissions per annum, hence posing a threat to local wildlife populations in conservation and protected and sensitive ecosystems.
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