A week ago, protesters claimed that the project may produce seven times as much carbon emissions annually as the rest of the nation, prompting Standard Chartered Bank to withdraw its $5 billion offer. According to a Stanchart representative, the lender “isn’t involved in the financing” of the 1,443 km crude pipeline that runs from Tanzania’s coast along the Indian Ocean to the oilfields in western Uganda.
East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) project finance appears to have been taken over by the Chinese as major financiers buckle under pressure from environmental opponents to abandon it.
Although the rigs are operational and upstream field development is moving forward, Eacop is falling behind the government’s schedule for the start of oil production in 2025 because of difficulties with land acquisition and a postponed financial close after many risk-averse banks targeted as financiers withdrew from the project.
