Museveni urges people around oil fields to grow more food

The President made the remarks during the launch of the commencement of drilling Kingfisher Oilfield where he switched on the rig installed in November last year at Buhuka village, Kyangwali in Kikuube district last evening.

“People of the area, the biggest local content which all of you can participate in is agriculture because all these people who work in the oil fields need food. Grow food so that these people buy it from you,” Museveni said.

The rig is operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and will start drilling 31 oil wells on four well pads.

CNOOC also noted that the whole set of equipment is a landmark achievement of Chinese oil equipment to transition to environmental friendliness and low carbon.

The development plan for the Kingfisher field includes the onshore drilling of 31 wells from four well pads.

In the oil industry, a well pad is a graded area for an oil drilling site where drilling rigs and pumps are planted before the actual drilling starts for an oil well or several oil wells within the same site.

The Kingfisher Area oil project will also develop a central processing facility with peak capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil per day, and 19 kilometre of flow-lines that will connect the oil fields to the facility.

At current oil prices of about $87.5 per barrel, the Kingfisher project will account for 15 percent of the total oil revenue to the government from upstream operations, equivalent to $6.9 billion for the entire project, or $360 million per year.

He also warned encroachers in Bugoma forest.