The construction of a $3.5 billion crude oil pipeline, a controversial mega-project that has sparked worries about human rights and the environment, received Tuesday's approval from Tanzania's government.

The 900-mile (1,443-kilometer) pipeline will carry crude from the enormous oilfields being developed in Lake Albert in northwest Uganda to a port in Tanzania on the Indian Ocean.

Both nations had to approve the pipeline, and Uganda this month, Uganda granted the project's operator, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, a license (EACOP).


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" At a ceremony to receive the approval certificate, EACOP Tanzania general manager Wendy Brown remarked, "This construction approval marks another step forward for EACOP as it authorizes the beginning of the primary construction activities in Tanzania, upon conclusion of the ongoing land access process.

Rights activists and environmental organizations have voiced their vehement opposition to the $10 billion oilfields and pipeline project, claiming that it threatens the region's delicate ecosystem and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), France's Total Energies, and the publicly traded Uganda National Oil Company are all working together to develop it.