KENYA – TotalEnergies has awarded a contract for the main logistics contractor (MLC) services for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) project, to French multinational, Bollore Logistics.

Local firms in Uganda and Tanzania will, therefore, only play the support role. Bollore Logistics will deliver the services within the budget of US$133 million, which the company bid.

EALS Ltd., a joint venture entity registered in Tanzania, with Super-Star Forwarders (a major Tanzanian logistics provider) and Bolloré Transport & Logistics Tanzania as shareholders, has been included in the contractor association to ensure meaningful local content opportunities.

“The EALS Ltd. structure and the existing Bolloré Transport & Logistics Uganda structure will maximise opportunities for Tanzanian and Ugandan subcontracting, employment and training at the highest international standards,” the firm said.

Bolloré will ensure efficient logistics operations from global origin locations to the main project discharge port in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and to multiple worksite locations in Tanzania and Uganda.

The MLC contract scope includes end-to-end receiving, storage, handling and transportation of hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of cargo, including over 80,000 joints of 18 metre line-pipe, multiple heavy-lift operations and significant break-bulk and containerised cargo transportation.

The international delivery cycle will utilise a series of charter-vessels, as well as existing global shipping as steel pipe will be imported into Tanzania and transported to a coating plant in Nzega district, where it will receive a thermal insulation coating.

The MLC contract includes the provision of purpose designed 18 metre trailers to deliver the line-pipe to multiple locations within Tanzania and Uganda.

The transportation of the entire project cargo within the two East African countries will exceed 30 million truck- kilometres, under the strictest Health, Safety and Environmental standards.

MLC logistics operations will be provided by the contractor associated companies emphasising Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental management systems, Ethical Compliance policies, commitment to National and Local Content objectives, advanced Track & Trace and Control Tower systems.

“We are committed to ensuring a cohesive and systematic approach which will contribute actively to the success of the EACOP project,” the firm added.

The EACOP project, whose total cost is expected to be US$5 billion, will construct a 1,443 Kilometre buried pipeline that will transport the country’s crude oil from Kabaale in South Western Uganda to the Chongoleani peninsula on the Tanzanian coast.

The project will include the world’s longest electrically heated pipeline which will be thermally insulated throughout the entire route. The Above-ground pumping stations and pressure reduction stations will control the safe flow of oil within the pipeline.

The EACOP project will transport approximately 216,000 barrels of oil per day from Uganda’s reserves at the Albertine Graben (Lake Albert) to a Marine Storage & Terminal and a Load Out Facility, near to Tanga Port in Tanzania, where the crude oil will be exported worldwide by ocean-going tankers.

The EACOP shareholders are TotalEnergies, Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) Limited and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC).

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