Oil drilling in Murchison Park kicks off with surprise discovery, rigs camouflaged

The engineers, at Jobi-Rii well, on Wednesday confirmed that they had reached the hydrocarbons not so far deep as had been expected. According to Alex Nyombi, the Director of Development and Production at the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), drilling oil in Tilenga is likely to be cheaper than King Fisher because of this.

“King Fisher wells are quite deep. Some of the wells go up to seven kilometres. So a well here is going to cost relatively much lower than a single well in King Fisher,” said Nyombi.

Mwesigwa Emmanuel, one of the PAU engineers monitoring the drilling operations at the Jobi-Rii well pad said after the successful drilling exercise, the drillers at the site were preparing the casings to make the wells ready for oil and gas extraction from the ground.

About 18 wells will be established at the Jobi-Rii site. Totalenergies plans to drill over 426 wells, which will include 200 water injector wells and 196 oil producer wells on 31 well-pads located in Nwoya and Buliisa districts. The SINOPEC 1503 at Jobi-Rii is an advanced and automated rig known as the “walking rig” that walks on hydraulic feet between drill sites. According to the engineers at the site, its portability makes it easy to drill many wells from the same drill pad.

The rig stands at about sixty-meter high in the middle of the national. It is painted with beige colour to resemble the surrounding Savannah grasslands. Unlike in other oil-producing countries, the well pads in Tilenga and King Fishers projects will not have the noise-making pump that is commonly used to extract oil commonly known as a nodding donkey.

There had been concerns that old-fashioned nodding donkey technology would be too noisy and possibly force wildlife to migrate. Nyombi told URN that the rigs have been fitted with technologies to minimize the noise in the national park and its surroundings.

The Prime Minister of Buganda, Charles Peter together with some members of his cabinet have been touring the oil and gas installations in the Albertine. He said he was happy that the choice of the colour of the rig was part of attempts to take care of conservation concerns.

"This is a national park and it is important that whatever activities regarding oil consider the life of the animals. The habitat of the animals. It is necessary for this industry to ensure that nature isn’t disturbed by man’s love for oil," he said.

Wildlife like giraffes, antelopes, bushbucks, and warthogs were seen in the vicinity of the well pads grazing seemingly not bothered by the activities in a fenced area.