Bank 'Comfortable' About Investment in China-Backed Oil Pipeline

Standard Bank, one of Africa's biggest banks, has been under fire for its potential involvement in the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline project. The bank says the project will not continue the destructive legacy of fossil fuel projects across the continent but will instead be a progressive development.

This comes after human rights organisations and environmentalists said the planned oil pipeline stretching from Uganda's Lake Albert to Tanzania's Indian Ocean coast risks displacing thousands of families and wildlife habitats. Enviromentalists are worried that it will threaten vulnerable species, such as elephants and chimpanzees, and carbon emissions could be increased.

The multibillion-dollar project is being led by French energy company TotalEnergies, which will construct oilfields in Uganda and transport the crude through a 1,445-kilometer (900-mile) pipeline to a port in Tanzania.

RFI reports that four environmental groups have filed a law suit against TotalEnergies and the EACOP oil project.

An official confirmed that the Ugandan government is in the closing stages of talks with Chinese bankers to help fund a contentious pipeline project after some Western partners withdrew.