A $4 Billion Oil Pipeline Creates a Climate Dilemma for Africa
The construction of a major fossil fuel project across Uganda and Tanzania is sparking a debate around economic development and environmental protection in one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change.
The TotalEnergies construction site for the Tilenga project in Murchison Falls National Park.
Photographer: Badru Katumba/AFP/Getty Images
Nelson Mugisha’s rural farming community near the shores of Uganda’s Lake Albert is lush and green — and woefully underdeveloped. Now, more than 15 years after oil was discovered in the area, a $4 billion pipeline project promises to change everything.
The consortium behind the project — which includes the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments, France’s TotalEnergies SE and China’s Cnooc Ltd. — say the 900-mile East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, or EACOP, will create thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars in government revenues.