By Black Star News
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
The landmark East African Crude Pipeline (EACOP) is now 91% complete, according to its Deputy Managing Director JB Habumugisha. He says the project has now reached 91% completion, against a planned progress of 94%. Habumugisha blames the slight delay as occasioned largely due to disruptions caused by the Middle East crisis and the Ebola outbreak, which affected the delivery of critical equipment and the deployment of key personnel required to keep the project on schedule.
The US/Israel started drone attacks on Iran on February 28 which have crippled shipping business along the critical waterway in the Strait of Hormuz. Now fully contained in Uganda, Ebola sneaked into the East African country from its western neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo where it is still pounding livelihoods there.
The starting point of the 1,443km EACOP is in Kabaale, Hoima District in mid-western Uganda from where it kicks off from Pump Station 1 to expectedly transport Uganda’s crude oil to the export terminal in the Indian Ocean’s Tanga Port in Tanzania for on-ward international market sales.
Oil was discovered in Uganda in June 2006. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)-Uganda operates the Kingfisher Development Project (KDP). According to the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU)’s August 6 statement, the Central Processing Facility’s Wellpad1 is currently a hive of drilling activities. “The Kingfisher Development Project is expected to produce up to 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) at peak production and approximately 20,000 tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas annually. The project represents an estimated investment of US$2-3 billion. As of June 2026, overall project progress stood at about 79%,” says PAU.
PAU acts as the statutory regulator overseeing the development, construction and operation of the EACOP Project. It as well monitors construction milestones, enforces national content policies and ensures environmental and livelihood protection standards are met. French-owned Total Energies-Uganda operates the Tilenga Project which spans Buliisa and Nwoya districts near Africa’s longest River Nile.
In the advent of oil resources extraction and development, the need for complementary infrastructure had to pop-up, therefore the construction of an international airport in the oil-producing region.
“The Kabalega International Airport has reached 98% completion and is on track for official completion by the end of August 2026. One of the remaining key components, the Control Tower, is currently under construction and is expected to be completed within the next three weeks,” PAU quotes project update provided by Amos Muriisa, Public Relations Officer for SBC, the construction company executing works on Uganda’s second-largest international airport. “The facility is expected to play a critical role in supporting logistics operations for the recently-launched Kabalega Industrial Park,” PAU states on August 5. PAU conducts regular supervisory and oversight visits to construction sites, main camps and pumping stations.
PAU the regulator monitors the alignment between construction pace and international standards; thus providing project progress updates and report the development moving forward toward completion targets.