PUBLICATIONS
This page contains a collection of reports, research and external links about the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and its many associated risks.
Climate Assessments
In October 2022, the Climate Accountability Institute published an evaluation of the climate impacts of the EACOP. CAI’s assessment found the EACOP project’s environmental impact assessments “do not acknowledge the full climate impacts” of the project, and do not reflect the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the pipeline’s construction phase and its 25-year operational life. CAI determined that the identification, emissions quantification, detailed calculations, and documentation found in the project’s ESIAs “are neither reliable nor complete.” CAI documents EACOP emissions totaling 379 million tonnes CO2e (MtCO2e) for the full value chain of emissions from pipeline transport of crude oil to the oil’s end use by global consumers.
Financial Assessments
In December 2020, the Climate Policy Initiative published a research paper which assesses the economic viability of the EACOP and associated oil extraction projects, and the extent to which these projects could positively benefit Uganda’s economic development plans. The research found that the oil deposits in Uganda have plummeted in financial value by 70% ($47 billion) since their discovery, and are expected to devalue even further as oil prices fall and the world adapts to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Another key conclusion of the report is that the oil projects are no longer commercially viable for the international oil companies without renegotiating commercial terms with the governments of Uganda and Tanzania – which will require the already debt-strapped countries to undertake even more financial risk and give up hundreds of millions of dollars of economic benefit should they want the project to proceed.
Read: “Understanding the impact of a low carbon transition on Uganda’s planned oil industry”
In November 2020, BankTrack, Africa Institute for Energy Governance, Both ENDS, Just Share, and Inclusive Development International published a finance risk briefing for all of the financiers considering supporting EACOP. The briefing sets out the numerous environmental, social and financial risks that are incapable of being adequately mitigated.
Read: “Crude Risk: Risks to banks and investors from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline”
Independent and Community-based Human Rights and Environmental Assessments
In October 2022, Les Amis de la Terre France and Survie published a report detailing the environmental and human rights risks and impacts faced by communities in Tanzania as a result of the EACOP.
Read in English: “EACOP, A Disaster in the Making: Research into Total's mega pipeline project in Tanzania.”
In December 2020, Les Amis de la Terre France and Survie published a report outlining the severe human rights risks and violations against communities as a result of the project, the alarming attacks being perpetrated against human rights and environmental defenders that speak out against the project, and the risks of irreversible harm to the environment posed by the project.
Read in English: “A Nightmare Named TOTAL: An Alarming Rise in Human Rights Violations in Uganda and Tanzania.”
Read in French: “A Nightmare Named TOTAL: An Alarming Rise in Human Rights Violations in Uganda and Tanzania.”
In September 2020, Oxfam, FIDH and others published two community-based human rights impact assessments that highlighted the extreme human rights impacts already materializing as a result of, and at risk in the face of, EACOP and associated oil extraction projects around Lake Albert and throughout Uganda and Tanzania.
In February 2020, Oxfam published a gender analysis of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, which documented numerous and disproportionately negative impacts on women that will most likely occur as a result of the EACOP project.
Read: Gender Analysis of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
In June 2019, the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment produced an advisory review of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for EACOP. The review identified numerous gaps and shortcomings in the project’s environmental and social assessment and mitigation plans.
In May 2019, Bill Powers, Chief Engineer of E-Tech International conducted a review of the adequacy of the Environmental Mitigation plans in EACOP’s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). The review documented several aspects of EACOP’s project design that do not meet international best practice, and several gaps in the project’s official ESIA and associated mitigation strategies to sufficiently minimize environmental risks.
Read: Review of adequacy of environmental mitigation for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline in Uganda
In 2019 E-Tech International conducted a similar review of Total’s Tilenga Project, the company’s oil extraction site that will feed the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline. The assessment concluded: “It is my professional opinion that TEP Uganda [Total’s Ugandan subsidiary] has chosen a least-cost, high impact development model for the Tilenga Project in the face of the profitability risks associated with the venture. TEP Uganda is not applying BAT [Best Available Technique].”
In July 2018, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Civil Society Coalition on Oil and Gas (CSCO) published a report outlining the various socio-economic risks posed by EACOP, and set out a series of key recommendations that project developers should undertake to ensure effective safeguards for people and nature. These recommendations have not yet been fully undertaken.
Videos
Down The Line
Oxfam America
Stop EACOP! Standard Bank & SMBC should not finance the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
Bank Track
Total's mega oil project devastating communities in Uganda. Total, see you in court!
Friends of the Earth International
Updates on the Total Lawsuit in France
In October 2020, Les Amis de la Terre France and Survie, two groups involved in the lawsuit against Total in France in relation to its Ugandan oil operations, published a report providing a thorough update on the status of the litigation against Total in France.
Read: “Total Uganda: A First Lawsuit under the Duty of Vigilance Law: An Update,”
Read: An earlier update from 2019 – “Serious breaches of the Duty of Vigilance law: the case of Total in Uganda”
Advocacy Petitions and Letters
In February 2021, over 250 civil society organizations sent an open letter to the project’s three financial advisors and lead arrangers, copying a list of potential financier banks, calling on them to publicly rule-out financing EACOP.
In October 2020, Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) published an article in its monthly newsletter outlining the experiences of EACOP-affected people, including incredible delays in receiving compensation they are owed.
In September 2020, 15 civil society organizations sent an open letter to the Presidents of Uganda and Tanzania, calling on them to “Champion Environmental Conservation and Community Livelihoods Over the EACOP.”
United Nations Special Rapporteur Letters
The threats to activists seeking to challenge oil development and the EACOP project have attracted international scrutiny, including from independent human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council
Read here a letter to Total’s CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, sent by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of expression; UN Special Rapportuer on the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. They sent a similar letter to the government of Uganda. Read Total’s responses here and here.
Photo credit: (Banner image) Shannon Goodman