EACOP’s Two-Track Week: Construction Tops 66.5% as New Legal Salvos Land—What That Means for Tanga’s Timeline

Thursday 4th September 2025

by inAfrika Reporter

The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) entered September with a paradox: the engineering ticker is rising while the legal docket stays busy. Project updates for Q2 2025 put overall completion at 66.5%, with 762 km of pipe welded, more than 325 km coated, and over 104 km lowered into the ground. Works at pump stations, storage tanks and the export jetty in Tanga have advanced alongside the mainline, and field teams say the cadence has improved since mid-year financing milestones unlocked contractor sequencing. On the face of it, those are the markers of a project pushing through the classic pipeline phases toward mechanical completion.

The business lens sharpens the stakes. If the current pace holds through Q4, Tanga’s terminal and jetty reshape regional marine logistics, and Uganda’s first oil changes forex flows and local-content markets from pipe and valves to catering and security. If, instead, litigation bites hard, the math of delay returns, with stand-down costs for contractors, creeping financing charges, and the gradual erosion of SME spillovers in host districts. Investors already track two numbers side by side: percent completion and case posture. The first lifts confidence; the second can take it away in a single hearing.

For readers who just want a clean answer on timeline, there isn’t one—yet. The engineering map suggests a project that’s crossed the psychological halfway mark decisively; the legal map counsels caution. The sensible posture for agencies and suppliers is optionality: proceed as if commissioning can be reached on schedule, but price contracts, workforce plans and working capital with enough give to survive a court-ordered pause. The longer the construction ticker outpaces the legal one, the more credible the schedule. Until then, the EACOP story is—unavoidably—two stories at once.