The Civil Engineering Contractor June 2019 | Page 12

INFRA AFRICA
Total HSE award for Best Safety Performance.
Geomechanics in a statement, says, ‘Right from preparation
phase for the Geotechnical Surveys contract, which included
a number of HSE workshops, Geomechanics always
demonstrated a willingness to meet the stringent Total HSE
requirements. Even during operations, Geomechanics has
continued to comply with the Total HSE requirements; as
demonstrated by their score of 74% during the Operations
HSE Audit for Geotechnical Operations. Resultantly
Geomechanics was invited to present their ‘HSE Journey’
at the Total Contractor Forum for 2017. In addition,
Geomechanics won an award for Best Safety Performance 2017
at the Total World Day for Safety awards for contractors, on
27 April 2018. We are pleased with these achievements.’
A consortium led by General Electric agreed in April 2018
to build and operate a 60 000b/d refinery in Hoima, western
Uganda. The USD4-billion facility is expected to process
10 | CEC June 2019
30 000b/d of crude initially, before its capacity doubles during
the second-phase development. The project is dependent on
the construction of the export pipeline via Tanzania that
Geomechanics is involved with. The front engineering and
design for this project was completed last year.
The USD3.5-billion planned export pipeline via Tanzania is
expected to bring over 200 000b/d of crude to the market
from the project. The 1 100km pipeline traversing the two
countries will be heated as Uganda will produce light, waxy
crude which might otherwise congeal en route.
To ensure minimal environmental and social impact, the
pipeline will be buried while some facilities will be above
ground. Currently, the National Environmental Management
Authority (NEMA) is reviewing the Environmental Social
Impact Assessment (ESIA) report that was handed over last
week by the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). nn
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