Large scale land acquisition and resettlement: FoE France calculates 13,000 households will lose land due to the project. Resettlement Action Plans show 86,000 people will be affected by the EACOP, and 32,000 by the Tilenga oil project (FoE France/Survie report 2022). The compensation process has seen delays, irregularities, insufficient information and harassment. For community testimonies, see HRW (2023), Afiego (2024).

Delayed and unjust compensation: Many people were ordered to stop growing perennial food and cash crops on land needed for the project, several years before receiving any compensation. Some had to give up on agriculture (Oxfam 2020 p.59). Over 75% of respondents to a 2023 AFIEGO study experienced delayed, inadequate or unfair compensation, and almost all could not acquire land equivalent to that lost. Many faced reduced crop productivity and income, leading to indebtedness and lost access to education. Some households accepted the insufficient compensation, while more than 100 have been sued by the government for refusing it.

Threats to human rights defenders and journalists: In May 2025 UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst called out TotalEnergies’ “continued failure to ensure protection” of environmental defenders, calling for its immediate action to protect EACOP activists and others. This followed a long track record of civil society members and journalists being intimidated, repressed, and arrested for speaking up about the project – 70 cases are compiled at eacopmap.org. Most recently, in April 2025, 11 activists were arrested after asking to present a letter to KCB Bank, which had financed the project. They are still in detention pending trial.

Impacts on livelihoods: Oil extraction is already impacting fisherfolk in Lake Albert, including through displacement, low compensation and pollution, while some 460km of the pipeline’s route lies within the basin of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, which directly supports the livelihoods of over 40 million people.

The pipeline risks degrading or polluting the many rivers and watercourses it crosses. Rather than using industry best practice, Total and its partners have chosen the lowest cost option, open cut trenching, for almost all crossings. Construction of the Central Processing Facility in 2023 and the feeder pipeline in 2024 already disrupted the drainage system in Buliisa, resulting in unprecedented frequent floods that submerged crops, leaving families without food.

The pipeline also threatens tourism in Uganda and Tanzania, with Murchison Falls National Park being a major tourist destination. The 5,000 jobs promised by the project (almost all temporary) are far outweighed by potential tourism job losses. According to Oxfam (2020) and FIDH (2020), local people had limited information on employment opportunities and some were denied employment in the initial stages of the project.

Gender aspects: Oil extraction disproportionately affects women, who are burdened by relocation and social changes while being excluded from employment and compensation. Multinationals Observatory’s Women on the Frontline (2025) explores issues including lack of access to compensation; relocation impacts; growing sexual abuse and ignored complaints. Growing prostitution is hindering the efforts of HIV/AIDS workers (ActionAid, 2023). Oxfam’s gender analysis (2019) showed income losses when women lose land or men control project benefits and compensation.

Impacts on cultural rights, including for Indigenous Peoples: Affected people fear the loss or destruction of spiritually important land and structures, such as sacred sites, graves, and cemeteries, and cultural ways of life that are linked to agriculture, fishing, and hunting. Oxfam identified the Barbaig, Sandawe, Ndorobo, Maasai, Akie and Taturu as Indigenous tribes that are especially vulnerable to the EACOP project’s impacts.

A 2022 study by the Climate Accountability Institute (CAI) finds the total emissions attributed to the 25-year operation of the pipeline total 379 million tonnes CO2 (MtCO2). At peak pipeline crude oil flow, in years three through six, emissions total 34.8 MtCO2/yr. This sum is significantly greater than the combined emissions of Uganda and Tanzania, at a time when the world’s scientists are telling us that new fossil fuel developments need to stop if we are to tackle the climate crisis.

The EACOP ESIAs estimate only the carbon dioxide emissions from the pipeline’s construction and operation. However, the CAI study shows this is a mere 1.8% of total, with far larger emissions from maritime transport, refining the oil into petroleum products, and from the use of the fuels by their end-consumers.

Further, these emissions assume that the EACOP will only be used for transporting oil from the Kingfisher and Tilenga oil fields. However, the EACOP could also be used for other oil fields in Uganda, DR Congo, Tanzania or even South Sudan, potentially extending its lifespan and increasing the emissions that it will enable. DR Congo is in discussions with Uganda over the use of the pipeline. According to the Africa Report, TotalEnergies representatives have met with Congolese officials to show interest in developing oil blocks. Transporting the extracted oil through EACOP could add up to 50,000 barrels per day to the 216,000 barrels per day from the Tilenga and Kingfisher sites.

Biodiversity, wildlife and protected nature areas: The ecologist Bill McKibben has said that EACOP’s proposed route "appears almost intentionally planned to threaten the highest number of animals possible." The EACOP facilitates oil extraction in Murchison Falls National Park, which threatens biodiversity and rare and endangered species, and is already impacting wildlife including elephants. TotalEnergies’ plan for the Tilenga oil field includes 10 well pads within the boundaries of the national park, each connected to several wells and amounting to some 130 oil wells. By 2024, 47 oil wells had been completed, including some in the park.

Important tributaries of the Nile flow nearby. Communities expressed concerns that possible river pollution risks an increase in cross-border conflicts as distant as North Africa.

Nearly 2,000km2 of protected wildlife habitats will be impacted. A feeder pipeline for the EACOP begins in the Tilenga oil field, partly situated in Murchison Falls National Park. Another feeder pipeline will encroach on the vulnerable Bugoma Forest Reserve, home to large groups of Eastern Chimpanzees.

From Hoima, EACOP runs through and will destroy swathes of the Taala Forest Reserve, a large savanna reserve and an important biodiversity conservation site. The potential loss of forest cover from construction is particularly problematic as Uganda is already losing about 90,000 hectares of forest per year.

In Tanzania, the pipeline will run through the Biharamulo Game Reserve, an IUCN Category IV site, and Wembere Steppe Key Biodiversity Area. Biharamulo Game Reserve hosts animals including lions, buffalo, impalas, hippos, giraffes and the red colobus monkey. The Wembere Steppe is an important place for seasonal birds. Some 500km2 of wildlife corridors for the Eastern Chimpanzee and African Elephant are likely to be severely degraded.

Finally, when reaching the Tanzanian shore, two important Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs), Pemba-Shimoni-Kisite and Tanga Coelacanth, are at high risk from the huge amount of oil to be transferred offshore at the Tanga Port. These EBSAs host several Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as well as Mangrove Forest Reserves, and coral reefs and waters with dugongs and sea turtles. Pemba Island is also an Alliance for Zero Extinction site.

Ramsar Wetlands: The project will directly impact several Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance. Oil extraction will take place within the Murchison Falls-Albert Delta Wetland System, a Ramsar site and a spawning ground for indigenous fish species. The pipeline will run near or through a number of Ramsar sites just west of Lake Victoria, including Mabamba Bay, the Lake Mburo-Nakivali System, the Lake Nabugabo System, the Nabajjuzi System, and the Sango Bay-Musambwa Island (see EACOP Threat Map in the Maps section of this profile).

Pollution and waste: The probability of a pipeline oil spill is high, with around a third of the pipeline located in the Lake Victoria watershed, an active seismic area. There are already several accounts of oil spills or seepages in the Albertine Graben region, including one at the Kiboro hot springs on March 29, 2020.

Regular cleaning of the pipeline will generate hazardous waste containing benzene, a human carcinogen. This waste will have to be either incinerated, which can generate hazardous air pollution, or be disposed of in storage sites at each pumping station, meaning each pumping station would become a hazardous-waste disposal site.   

Water sources: The pipeline poses high risks of freshwater pollution and degradation, particularly to the Lake Victoria basin. Constructing and testing the pipeline requires a significant amount of water. The Tanzanian ESIA states several batches of around 16,000 m3 of water will be needed for testing, although the pipeline will traverse several water-stressed regions, further threatening water availability. 

Emergence of new infectious diseases. The EACOP project also threatens to cause infectious outbreaks. Hundreds of scientific studies have shown a link between biodiversity destruction and the emergence of infectious diseases.

Murchison Falls National Park, being in the tropical part of Uganda, is not only home to animal and plant diversity but also viruses, bacteria and parasites. Destruction of sensitive areas such as forests along the EACOP route creates new contact between humans and wildlife. It also disrupts the “dilution effect”, an ecosystem service that limits the transmission of pathogens by maintaining a balance between animal species that are carriers and those that are not.

Limited opportunities for stakeholder participation in ESIAs: Formal opportunities  for community members to participate in the impact assessment of the EACOP were limited in both countries. The options for stakeholder participation included commenting on the ESIA scoping report, going to public hearings, and reviewing the final ESIAs. Consultation periods for the ESIAs were very short. In Tanzania the formal consultation period was only 14 days, in Uganda it was 28 days. In addition, despite public hearings and meetings, community members in Uganda as well as Tanzania felt they did not receive sufficient detailed information among others about the environmental and social impacts of the project necessary to engage in meaningful public consultation.

In Tanzania, many afmilies are unable to afford education for their children, and a massive rate of school dropouts in the EACOP project-affected areas has been reported. Many parents reported struggling to pay school fees because their incomes have been impacted by land restrictions associated with the project (Bart, 2022, pg. 25).