PAU addresses oil development sustainability program in the face of fresh concerns

Kingfisher oilfield is expected to produce 40,000 barrels each day at peak production, while Tilenga is expected to produce 190,000 barrels. Both are key parts of a major national project expected to be completed within two years.

According to Gloria Sebikari, the corporate affairs manager at the Petroleum Authority, the country is on track to begin producing oil by 2025. She says $6.9 billion (USD) worth of contracts are being awarded, and $1.8 billion (USD) of those will go to local companies.

“Two projects will produce the crude oil project that’s the Kingfisher project and the Tilenga project. Those two projects will produce oil and this produced oil will be commercialized through two other projects, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, which will run from here, Hoima, to Tanzania to export crude oil, and then the Uganda refinery project, which will be used to process our crude oil into petroleum products for use," she explains.

Sebikari says work on the 897-mile (1,443-kilometer) $2.5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is expected to begin this year. But at the moment, the project has provoked concern from environmental activists.

TotalEnergies taken to French courts

In a recent stir of environmental concerns, TotalEnergies has been accused of failing to comply with France’s “duty of vigilance” law. The new litigations seek compensation for the company’s alleged violations of land and food rights over six years.

Ecological fragility concerns stem from the fact that some of the wells and the pipeline will come upon natural reserves and leave them unturned in their wake. These include; Murchison Falls National Park, where the Nile descends 130 feet through a 6-meter gap, the surrounding wilderness which is home to hippos, egrets, giraffes and antelopes, seven forest reserves and two game parks, and brush along Lake Victoria.

TotalEnergies has since denied the allegations and assured the public that the pipeline is a state-of-the-art design that will ensure safety for decades.

Project-affected persons concerns

Among those who were earmarked for compensation, in finances or housing from the Tilenga project, is fifty-two-year-old Juliet Akumu, africanews reports.

She got a house adjacent to the development area but now expresses concern about environmental pollution from the oil field.

“The major problem we have experienced so far was a couple of days ago, there was a huge dust that originated from the construction site and all of us were covered in that dust,” Akumu told Aafricanews.

PAU adresses oil development sustainability program in the face of fresh concerns/Pexels Pulse

Sustainability measures

It is against this backdrop of these concerns that Sebikari came out on behalf of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda to explain how they have addressed all loopholes and environmental concerns arising from the project.

“I believe a lot of the issues being raised by the activists are out of either misinformation or deliberate disinformation. As government and the project partners, we have taken deliberate steps to ensure that the oil and gas projects are developed sustainably, and we have taken care of the environment and biodiversity concerns. We are also ensuring that the livelihoods of the communities surrounding these operations are improved alongside the development of the projects," she said.

Peter Odil, the facility manager for Waste management company EnviroServ which is one of the companies licensed to handle oil waste, said they have maintained all regulatory requirements in the company's mandate to protect the environment from waste.

“We are compelled by the law to make sure that we monitor our activities here. We have eleven monitoring wells in layman's terms, you can call them the boreholes, they were drilled around this facility, and we pick the water samples from them, the deepest being 65 meters, the shallowest being 9, so we pick water samples all around this facility, we do analysis every three months and we report to regulators," he further stated.