Oil giant Total is the majority shareholder in Uganda’s first major oil drilling programme, writes Charlotte Cosset and Juliet Pietri for Radio France Internationale.
Uganda discovered crude reserves estimated at 6.5 billion barrels, with 1.4 billion recoverable nearly two decades ago, in the western region in the Lake Albertine basin, Kingfisher and Tilenga oilfields.
When production starts, it is estimated that nearly 200,000 barrels can be produced daily. To meet these targets, the project is divided into two parts.
The first part – Tilenga – involves pumping and processing the oil. Thirty-one extraction zones are planned for a total of 426 wells along with a processing plant.
The second part – the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) – involves the construction of a buried pipeline of more than 1,440 kilometers. It will be the longest heated oil pipeline in the world.
While in Tanzania, the oil pipeline will be routed through land that belongs to the government, whereas if it were routed through Kenya – a more direct route – it would have been more costly as land there is more expensive and privately owned.
Experts are warning that fossil fuels must stay in the ground, to prevent the worst effects of the climate emergency and putting at risk the goal of curbing global warming to a 1.5 ° increase from pre-industrial levels.
Africa is rich in clean energy sources, such as sun and wind, but despite the abundant sunshine, ideal for renewable energy production, the continent relies heavily on crude oil.
The continent also contributes the least to global warming and has the lowest total greenhouse gas emissions but remains the most vulnerable continent, facing systemic risks to infrastructure, water and food systems, public health, and livelihoods, that threaten to undo development gains and increase levels of extreme poverty.
This has also prevented African countries from achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in the areas of poverty, health, climate, and economic growth.
The problem for Uganda’s oil extraction is that it will take place partly in the Murchison Falls Park, a classified site under the protection of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
The park has 144 species of mammals, more than 500 species of birds, reptiles and amphibians . It is also the most visited park in the country.
