With a world highly dependent on oil and gas, it’s no wonder that Africa is considering such a devastating pipeline next. In 2006, Uganda discovered 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable commercial oil in the Albertine Graben Region. In February 2022, the latest utilization of the oil took place, which included project partners Total, CNOOC, UNOC, and TPDC. The partners announced a final investment decision or FID regarding the launch of the Lake Albert Development Projects. These projects represent an investment of $10 billion, but they also include two extraction projects and the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, or the EACOP. The EACOP is a proposed pipeline that will transport an estimated 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day throughout Uganda to the Tanga Port. This pipeline is dangerous and destructive for the environment, the people, and the animals who live within it.
By Amanda Platts
China also has their hands in the oil pocket, as Chinese companies such as China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) are currently engaged in the oil efforts taking place in Uganda. These efforts hope to extract oil by 2025 and as well build the EACOP. This work continues to take place despite President Xi Jinping not only representing China as they hold the presidency of the Convention of Biological Diversity, but also stated in a 2021 speech that “protecting biodiversity helps protect Earth, our common homeland, and contributes to humanity’s sustainable development.” While he speaks of saving the earth, the oil companies which he commands are set on destruction. These oil companies are doing little to align their actions with the promises by from Xi, who makes lofty statements regarding saving the world’s biodiversity from destructive actions, the same actions his country is taking part in.
The EACOP is considered monstrous by many, and the Climate Accountability Institute found that the EACOP will cause 379 million tons of climate-heating pollution. That is 25 times the combined annual emissions that Uganda and Tanzania produce yearly. With climate change affecting our daily lives, and killing off the biodiversity we depend on, this project will do nothing more than to help advance the destruction of our earth. Our planet cannot afford any more suffocation, with carbon dioxide levels growing annually. The effects that pollution is having on our ecosystem are vast and terrifying, and a project like this will only further advance the irreparable damage that is being done to the planet.
This destructive pipeline will also take place next to the Lake Victoria Basin, which happens to be Africa’s freshwater reserve. This is horrifying, as one single oil spill could completely soil the water supply, destroying its properties, the land, and the environment around it. Not only that, but the pollution and the possibility of an oil spill could kill off the animals and the people of the region. 40 million people rely on this basin for clean drinking water. However, it’s evident that China, which makes lofty promises has little regard for people or the environment. This project could easily lead to the destruction of much of Africa’s life, both human and otherwise. China is proving that it only cares about the almighty dollar, as it puts large communities in very real danger of destruction.
These projects have huge consequences, such as destroying access to water, ruining the local economy, destroying businesses that exist on and benefit from the natural lands causing employment struggles and shortages, and more. The EACOP also involves the resettlement of 1700-3000 households, plenty of which are indigenous communities. Another 14,000 are suspected to lose land. It’s clear to the locals, and many others throughout the world that China only cares about their bank account, as locals find themselves fighting for the land that they have happily and respectfully existed on for centuries.
It was often a trope, striking black gold, that oil would bring prosperity. We’ve seen it in the USA, with promises that the Keystone XL Pipeline would produce jobs, and we’ve seen it in places like Angola, Iran, and Nigeria, who discovered oil and mined for it but ended up destroying their land and their way of society. The hard truth is that oil does not always create prosperity, it does not help those living in Uganda who will find themselves displaced. Instead, it has the potential to create further poverty and violence in locations where these types of projects exist. It creates division, and it causes people to result to extremes as their way of life is ripped from them. The EACOP will do the same, as it destroys the land and the communities who live on it, bit by bit, and barrel by barrel. Oil is not black gold, but rather often proves to be black death, running freely to the bank.
Amanda Platts is a freelance political analyst based in the UK looking at geopolitical developments in Asia and Africa including regional and international trade dynamics.
