(3 minutes read)
By 2025, Uganda will have its oil coming out of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline as planned. Its president Yoweri Museni reaffirmed his determination to have the project completed. It may be recalled the European Union’s Parliament urged the international community to exert maximum pressure on Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities, as well as the project promoters and stakeholders, to stop oil activities around Lake Albert
By 2025, Uganda will have its oil coming out of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline as planned. Its president Yoweri Museni reaffirmed his determination to have the project completed. It may be recalled that the European Union’s Parliament urged the international community to exert maximum pressure on Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities, as well as the project promoters and stakeholders, to stop oil activities around Lake Albert.
Uganda has recoverable oil reserves of at least 1.4 billion barrels. In February, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and TotalEnergies said that the total investment would be more than US$10 billion. They have partnered with the Uganda National Oil Company, and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation. In the meantime, the national assembly through a statement asserted Uganda’s sovereignty and condemned the EU parliament’s resolution. It said the resolution was based on misinformation and deliberate misrepresentation of key facts on environment and human rights protection.
Kampala says oil wealth can lift millions of its citizens from the poverty line, ensure employment and income for the people, and beef up its foreign exchange earnings. However, environmental NGOs like Friends of the Earth evaluated that over one hundred twenty thousand people will lose land to make way for the project. The NGOs also pointed out inadequate compensation and highlighted how some people had to abandon their homes because of the oil project. They demanded that compensation should be prompt, fair, and adequate, as provided for in the Ugandan Constitution and as promised by the companies.
The text also expressed its grave concern about the human rights violations in Uganda and Tanzania linked to investments in fossil-fuel projects. The wrongful imprisonment of human rights defenders, the arbitrary suspension of NGOs, and arbitrary prison sentences is rampant in Uganda, triggered by agitations against the project.
Read Also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/green-farming-becomes-popular-in-uganda/
https://trendsnafrica.com/ugandas-public-debt-stock-increases-by-22-per-cent/
https://trendsnafrica.com/rwanda-and-uganda-agree-to-revive-bilateral-ties/
The president also revealed that TotalEnergies had assured him that the pipeline that links oil fields in western Uganda to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania would proceed as planned. If the French energy group was to choose to listen to the EU Parliament, Uganda shall find another partner, Museni warned.
