By Ebeneza Mollel

Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA) has met and held talks with the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) Ltd - Tanzanian side to share experience on local content development, particularly in the area of capacity building. The parties met today, 11^th April 2023 at EACOP Offices in Dar es Salaam. In attendance at the meeting was the Acting Head of Local Content and Stakeholders Engagement from PURA, Mr. Ebeneza Mollel, and EACOP National / Local Content Manager, Mr. Olivier Foulonneau.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Ebeneza explained that, as one of its strategies to enhance local participation in petroleum upstream operations, PURA has been reaching out to and engaging with various stakeholders in the industry. Through these engagements, PURA has not only been able to get constructive ideas on how to further increase local content but also learn about challenges faced by such stakeholders, especially in the implementation of local content legal requirements.

“PURA believes local content development requires a collaborative effort, and requires every stakeholder to be involved and play its part lest the desired result will not be realized. Since EACOP is one of the stakeholders playing a significant role in the local content space, PURA saw it necessary to engage with the company to exchange experience on this front” added Mr. Ebeneza.

On his part, the EACOP National/Local Content Manager, Mr. Oliver said it was such an honor to have an engagement with PURA as a stakeholder to discuss local content issues including initiates undertaken by EACOP Ltd to enhance local content in the project.

“EACOP Ltd, apart from ensuring that main contractors are adhering to local content requirements as per the Host Government Agreement and the Petroleum (Local Content) Regulations, 2017, the company has been carrying out various capacity-building programs for both local suppliers and local workforce” continued Mr. Olivier.

Explaining further on stakeholder initiatives undertaken by EACOP Ltd, the Local Content – Capacity Building Lead from EACOP Tanzania, Ms. Martha Makoi said that the company had engaged with several vocational training institutes such as Arusha Technical College, and Kilimanjaro International Institute for Telecommunication, Electronics, and Computer. These engagements will see such institutions being capacitated to produce a technically proficient workforce for the EACOP Project (on the Tanzanian side).

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project (EACOP) is a 1,443km crude oil pipeline that will transport oil produced from Uganda’s Lake Albert oilfields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania where the oil will then be sold onwards to world markets. In Uganda, the pipeline, 296km long, will traverse 10 districts and 25 sub-counties. In Tanzania, the pipeline, 1,147km long will traverse 8 regions and 25 districts. The implementation of this project comes with numerous opportunities including employment and supply of goods and services.