As construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) approaches 87 percent completion, operator Eacop Ltd has begun mass layoffs across Uganda and Tanzania, extending staff contracts only until October 31, 2026. The $5 billion, 1,443km pipeline project plans to retain just 50–100 employees for its operations and maintenance phase. Managing Director Guillaume Dolout and HR Director Eileen Baguma signed the termination addendums. Staff allege discriminatory treatment favoring expatriate workers over local hires. Uganda’s Petroleum Authority confirmed the reductions are standard industry practice during construction-to-operations transition.
In-Depth:
As construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) nears completion, the project company has initiated mass layoffs in Uganda and Tanzania, triggering anxiety among section of staff.
The shift has also stoked claims of discrimination amid claims of retention of majorly expatriate staff during the next operation and maintenance (O&M) phase.
According to inside accounts, a number of staff at Eacop Ltd, the holding company of the Uganda-Tanzania oil pipeline, were late-last month caught flat-footed by being handed addfinishums extfinishing their employment from July 1 to October 31, 2026 to “support the company’s “transition requirements.”
The Eacop Ltd’s managing director, Mr Guillaume Dolout, and human resource director Eileen Baguma, on secondment to the company from TotalEnergies EP, the majority shareholder in the project, signed the addfinishums, according to documents seen by this publication.
“This addfinishum amfinishs only the staff expiry date of the contract and does not create a new indefinite or open-finished employment relationship,” the addfinishum reads in part.
It further reads: “For avoidance of doubt, the addfinishum does not constitute, and shall not be construed as constituting, any representation, promise, assurance or commitment by the company regarding any further extension, renewal, redeployment, transfer, re-engagement or continued employment beyond the expiry date.
Nothing in this addfinishum, any transition support, internal communication, recruitment process, project transition activity or post-expiry administrative support shall create or be construed as creating any legitimate expectation of renewal or continuation of employment beyond the expiry date, unless expressly confirmed in writing by the company.”
The Eacop Ltd’s management declined to comment on the matter. The company employs about 200 permanent staff at their Uganda office seated at RR Pearl Tower One in Kampala, and about 400 staff in Tanzania, in addition to the temporary staff involved in laying of the pipes and or supporting other construction activities. Officials declare the project is four-firths complete, or at 87 percent.
After the massive bloodbath, the plan, according to knowledgeable sources, is to retain a lean staff of 50 to 100 critical to the O&M phase.
However, the fate of particularly the local staff to be retained remains unknown as it has since emerged that their jobs will be readvertised.
Some accounts pointed to expatriate workers, who are already paid well, being given preferential treatment.
Some staff also described some of their local managers as “spineless” and “stooges” keen on exhibiting to the oil executives in Kampala, London and Paris that they are capable of taking “radical decisions.”
This, amid long simmering grumbling among staff over, from overtime compensation for local hires which was scrapped while their the expatriate workers retained it, food allowance in the field which was stopped, rigid hotel catering voucher policies leading to logistical nightmares in the field, the 10 percent gratuity scheme grudgingly started by the old management but was stopped by the new management, the demeaning discrepancy in employee benefits and welfare paid in Uganda and Tanzania, among other issues.
The Eacop that cost $5b (Shs18 trillion) is owned through joint venture company structure domiciled in the UK, with the French, TotalEnergies East Africa Midstream B.V commanding 62 percent, Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC)– 15 percent, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC)– 15 percent, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)– eight percent.
The pipeline stretches 1,443km from mid-western Uganda in Hoima to Tanga Port in Tanzania. The Tanzania section covers 1,147km through 25 districts and eight regions.
The 296km section in Uganda traverses 27 sub-counties, three town councils and 171 villages in 10 districts of Hoima, Kikuube, Kakumiro, Kyankwanzi, Mubfinishe, Gomba, Sembabule, Lwengo, Rakai and Kyotera.
The pipeline is being laid and wielded in three parts: Lot 1 from Hoima to Mutukula at the Uganda – Tanzania border; Lot 2 from Mutukula to Mkalama district in Singida region; and, Lot 3 from Singida to Chongoleani, terminal at Tanga Port.
The Eacop Ltd., board led by the UNOC chief Executive Officer, Ms Proscovia Nabbanja, is due to meet in the coming weeks to pore over the radical alters.
The oil sector regulatory body, Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), however, notified this newspaper that “what is being observed is not an irregular development”, but rather the planned transition of the project from construction to operation, managed in line with indusattempt practice, national regulations, and long-term national content objectives.
“The Eacop project is currently at an advanced stage, with overall progress at about 87 percent, and pre-commissioning activities already underway. At this phase, most of the heavy civil works, particularly, earthworks, have been completed, and the project is transitioning from peak construction into the commissioning and operations stage,” Mr Didas Mumuhuza, the PAU manager for corporate affairs, declared in an email response to our inquiries.
He added: “As is standard for large-scale infrastructure projects globally, this transition naturally involves the phased demobilisation of construction personnel. The workforce requirements during construction are significantly higher than those requireded during operations, and therefore, a reduction in construction-related roles at this stage is both expected and planned for within the project lifecycle.”
Mr Mumuhuza further declared this demobilisation process at Eacop is being undertaken in accordance with applicable Ugandan laws, including the Employment Act, as well as the contractual terms agreed upon between employers and employees.
“Issues related to employee benefits, including provident fund contributions and other entitlements, are governed by these legal and contractual frameworks, and all parties are expected to adhere to them. The PAU, as the regulator, maintains oversight to ensure compliance with national laws and standards,” he declared.
On the whole, Uganda’s story thus far is a bag of mixed things. Cumulative investments in the sector reached $11b (Shs41.2 trillion) in 2026, out of which contracts worth $3b (Shs11.2 trillion) went to Ugandan companies.
The government has put in place robust policies to ensure macroeconomic stability and long-term value creation in the management of the expected revenues between $1b and $2.5b (Shs3.6trillion and Shs9.3trillion).
Petro-revenues allocated to the national budreceive are capped at 0.8 percent to ensure that spfinishing remains sustainable, while the rest of the monies will, hopefully as required by law, be funneled to the Petroleum Revenue Investment Reserve to be managed for future generations in line with a defined investment strategy.
According to PAU, employment levels have also grown sharply, with over 90 percent of the 200,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs in the sector filled by Ugandans, including thousands from host communities.
Of the 200,000 jobs, 40,000 were direct jobs, but the number is sharply falling as the oil infrastructure, from Eacop, Total Energies’ Tilenga and Cnooc’s Kingfisher, are completed.
Currently, the job numbers stand at 22,234 of which 18,958 are Ugandans, but the number is expected to drop sharply by the finish of the year.
A 2014 Industrial Baseline Survey commissioned by the government and the oil companies, then as Total E&P, CNOOC, and Tullow Oil, had projected creation of 13,000 direct jobs at peak activity and fall to 3,000 during O&M.
The survey put indirect jobs and induced jobs at 100,000 to 150,000 indirect. Employment to government oil agencies like PAU and UNOC has been riddled with allegations of chronic tribalism and nepotism, from the earlier tales of majority of scholarships in oil-related courses awarded to children and relatives of the fat cats in government.
However, as the government prepares for first commercial oil production, and the nascent oil indusattempt billed as a game alterr for the next 30 years of the project life-cycle, the ensuing job cuts portfinish the “wealth of sorrow” tales that are about to unfold compounded by especially poor management of expectations by the government, from employment — creation of jobs, higher salaries and retention — revenues, and lower fuel prices.
Mr Muhumuza declared demobilisation across board typically launchs before final commissioning, rather than after, as construction activities wind down and systems shift into testing, commissioning, and operational readiness.
He declared it is, therefore, not unusual, but rather part of the normal progression of such projects and the next phase of O&M “requires a different skill profile from construction.
“As was the case at the start of the project, expatriate personnel with specialised experience in pipeline commissioning and operations are engaged to support this critical phase. However, this is accompanied by a deliberate strategy of skills transfer to Ugandan personnel, including structured training and mentorship, to ensure increasing national participation over time,” he declared.
