On February 21, 2023, Dar es salaam gave its final go-ahead to the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a controversial project to link Uganda’s Lake Albert fields to the Tanzanian coast. French Foreign Trade Minister Olivier Becht, visiting Kenya and then Tanzania, said his “ government is not there to denounce the projects of private companies “, while the tricolor giant TotalEnergies owns 62% of the consortium which holds the license to operate this pipeline.
After Kenya, the French Minister for Foreign Trade Olivier Becht is going to Tanzania this Thursday, February 23, 2023. A visit, two days after the Tanzanian authorities gave their final green light to the very controversial project of the oil group TotalEnergies to build a a gigantic pipeline to link the deposits of Lake Albert, in western Uganda, to the Tanzanian coast on the Indian Ocean to transport them to international markets.
In September 2022, the European Parliament denounced this project. In December, six NGOs took TotalEnergies to court in Paris.
► To read also: Disputed project of the oil group TotalEnergies: what reality in Uganda and Tanzania?
RFI questioned Olivier Becht on the diplomatic support provided by France to this project. ” The government is not there to denounce the projects of private companieshe replied to the microphone of Florence Morice. The question is whether we support it financially. The answer is no. Then, we are in a country, in France, of freedoms where companies, in particular which are global groups, continue to make their investments. It is not up to us to prohibit investments, especially when they are made abroad “.
Relaunched on the question of possible political support, the Minister concluded: ” It is not for me to give political support or a political red card to a company. »
The East Africa Crude Oil Project (EACOP) is a 1,443 kilometer heated pipeline project jointly developed by the French giant TotalEnergies, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), as well as the state oil companies of Uganda and Tanzania. TotalEnergies owns 62% of the consortium that holds the license to operate the pipeline.