Penspen, WorleyParsons favourites for oil pipeline supervision tender

UK’s Penspen and Australia-based WorleyParsons are in the lead for the lucrative tender to “oversee” the East African Crude Oil Export Pipeline engineering, procurement and construction tender.

Sources familiar with the matter told this website the two project management companies “have the upper hand” from the ongoing evaluations out of a pool of seven firms.

The EPC tender, sources told this website, will be awarded in the coming months.

Both companies have experience working in the East African region. In 2014, Penspen was awarded a tender to undertake a feasibility study for the Kampala-Kigali segment of the Eldoret-Kampala-Kigali pipeline. The company also worked on the the Kenyan pipeline system in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.

WorleyParsons, on the other hand, is currently working with Tullow Oil on its oil fields in Kenya, and has also worked with Cnooc on its Kingfisher field in Uganda.

The 1,443km East African Crude Oil Export Pipeline is expected to run from Hoima in mid-western Uganda to Tanga port at the Indian Ocean in Tanzania. It is projected to cost $3.5bn.

At least 80% of the pipeline, 1,147km, will be on the Tanzanian side, where 80% of the projected capital expenditure will also be spent.

The two countries’ equity in the project will be carried through the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and the Uganda National Pipeline Company, respectively. NPC is one of the two subsidiaries of the Uganda National Oil Company.

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