East African Crude Oil Pipeline Limited (EACOP Ltd.), the company developing a five billion US dollar crude oil pipeline in Uganda, has completed the first round of external financing from a group of institutions. The consortium includes banks from Africa and Saudi Arabia. This means that the French energy company Total Energies can continue to pursue its controversial plans for the pipeline, even though dozens of Western banks and insurance companies have refused to participate in the project under pressure from climate activists. According to climate activists, the expansion contradicts the NDCs of the countries involved.