Total E&P Uganda (TEPU), which is as part of the Tilenga Oil Project in the oil-rich Albertine graben, has abandoned two oil wells within the iconic Murchison Falls National Park.

The manager for operations and compliance at the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, Mr Felix Bob Ocitti, revealed this information during a guided media tour in the Albertine graben at the weekend.

The wells, named Jobi East and Mpyo, situated north of Lake Albert in Nwoya District, were deemed economically unviable due to limited oil deposits.

‘‘It [TEPU] is working on 426 Oil wells, half of them being producer wells and the remaining half are injector wells that help to pump water underground to push Crude Oil onto the land surface,” Mr Ocitti said.

He added that the latest development is in line with the stipulations outlined in the country’s oil laws, which state that a company is granted two years for exploration and an additional two years for the development of any oil well for production. After this period elapses, the government reassumes ownership of the resource.

Oil fields

TEPU has chosen to focus its efforts on six other oil fields that show greater promise.

They include Rii, Ngiri, Kasamene, Gunya, Nsonga, and Kigogole. The company is overseeing the Tilenga Oil Project, the largest oil drilling project in the region, which utilises three rigs or oil drilling machines.

However, the continued exploration and production of oil in the fragile ecosystem of Murchison Falls National Park have raised concerns among environmental activists.

They fear that such activities could disrupt the park’s flora and fauna.

Mr Dickens Kamugisha, the executive director of the African Institute for Energy Governance, emphasised that no further oil activities should be allowed in critical ecosystems, particularly Murchison Falls National Park.

The park attracts a significant number of tourists to Uganda and contributes approximately $1.6 billion in revenue annually.

Exploration

Mr James Amale, a civil works structural supervisor at the Tilenga Industrial Park and Central Processing Facility, reassured critics that oil extraction within the national park would employ technology aimed at minimising the ecological footprint.

He explained that the well pads in Murchison Falls National Park have been strategically positioned to minimise their impact, and directional drilling technology would be employed to extract the oil.

Source: Africa Press

The Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation Board (UPPC) have appointed prof. Sudi Nangoli to replace Kenneth Oluka as the Corporation Managing Director.

Oluka was the Acting Managing Director for one year and seven months whilst entreating the Minister for Presidency for his confirmation. He was instead replaced. Handing over the office, Oluka reminded the UPPC Board that he has been appointed to head the Corporation in unusual circumstances and found the corporation fraught with internal problems. He however pledged to work with the Managing Director to propel the Corporation to greater heights and I am privileged to have been identified to hold that office for close to 2 years. There were divisions among departmental managers which I fixed and led the corporation through its 120 years achievements.

I leave a happy man, committed to working with the incoming Managing Director with all UPPC staff’ Oluka urged the Corporation’s Board to replace the old printery machines with modern ones to complete favorably in the market. The new UPPC Managing Director, prof. Sudi Nangoli pledged to revamp the image of the corporation and strongly warned against absenteeism, last the culprits lose their jobs I will do my best to carry on the corporation’s vision, value, and mission to build its image.

I will also work on the internal inefficiencies to eliminate the absentee workers, he added. I will work on professionalism by building the workers’ capacities and ensure the corporation moves in a upward trajectory, he said. UPPC Board Chairperson, Joachim Buwembo officiated at the handover and noted it was unfortunate the corporation had no substantive Managing Director for almost two years. He commended Oluka for acting until a suitable candidate was identified through a process. Mr. Buwembo noted that Prof. Nangoli brings much expertise, which will propel the corporation to deliver on its mandate. Prof. Sudi Nangoli joins UPPC from Makerere University Business School where he was a member of senior management since 2014. He was the Acting Dean for the Faculty of Business Administration. He has been previously the Dean and program controller in the faculty of management science at Busitema University and board member.

JUST IN:

Hon. Charles Angiro Gutomoi, The former MP Erute North Constituency has died. Angiro, who was on a journey in a Noah vehicle, tragically lost his life in a motor accident this morning near Olwio along the road leading to Nebbi.

The Saturday morning crash happened at Ayago along Karuma-Olwiyo-Pakwach-Nebbi road after the driver of the car they were driving in lost control before it overturned several times The former Member of Parliament for Erute North in Lira District, Charles Angiro Gutomoi and three others have died in a road crash.

Nebbi Resident District Commissioner (RDC) , Mr Robert Abak, said the victims were traveling for a traditional marriage ceremony at Unjuku ward in Nebbi Municipality.

FINAL ELECTION RESULTS: UPC’S APIO OTUKO EUNICE WINS OYAM NORTH BY-ELECTION WITH 49.12%! The @UgandaEC Returning Officer for Oyam District, Mr. Richard Onoba, announced the final results for the #OyamNorthByElection, and the winner is UPC’s Ms. Apio Otuko Eunice! Ms. Apio Otuko Eunice has garnered 15,718 votes (49.12%).

The results for other candidates are as follows:

📌15,161 votes ⏤Engola Okello Samuel – @NRMOnline
📌714 votes ⏤ Okello Freddy Newton – @FDCOfficial1
📌403 votes ⏤ Okello Daniel – @NUP_Ug

The voting has largely been peaceful, with @UgandaEC’s complaints desk registering 3 incidents of ballot box stuffing in 3 of the 167 polling stations (1.8% of the polling stations)⏤ 98.2% of the polling stations were all peaceful.

All the affected polling stations were in Otwal Subscounty. All the other sub-counties and Oyam Town Council were peaceful. @UgandaEC moved swiftly to contain the situation by withdrawing the affected ballot boxes and their contents and replacing them with new boxes, allowing the voting to go on smoothly. To the @UgandaEC, the @PoliceUg and other members of the security forces, thank you for what I can say has been largely a peaceful process, the challenges, notwithstanding.

Who is Dr. Eunice Atuko Apio, the Newly elected MP for Oyam North?

Dr. Eunice Otuko Apio Dr. Apio hails from Amukugungu parish in Otwal Sub-County, and is a member of the Uganda People’s Congress Party (UPC). She is an accomplished researcher, development activist, peace builder and author.

A little bit about herself;

PhD in African Studies and Anthropology from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2016. Masters in Human Rights (MUK). Bachelor of Science in Science (MUK).
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Gender and Transitional Justice at the Law School, University of Birmingham (2017-2022).
Honorary Research Fellow, University of Birmingham. Honorary Senior Research Fellow, American Council for Women, Peace and Security.

Novelist: Writer of ‘Zura Maids’ – an award-winning novel set in Oyam, that reimagines the experiences of human trafficking victims/survivors in an African setting.

Dr. Eunice is co-founder of Facilitation for Peace and Development (FAPAD), a non-profit non-governmental organization in northern Uganda. Dr. Eunice’s lifelong work The UPC Winning Strategy!

The presence of Jimmy Akena physically in Oyam shifted the balance completely in favour of the UPC candidate. In lango, in some areas, Oyam is one of them, UPC is worshipped not just supported. Oyam is one of those key districts that has some seriously loaded UPC Vanguards especially in Minakulu who are very interested in Politics for the sake of maintaining the image of the party.

There was no way the eloquence of Dr Eunice would be matched with that of Engola Junior. Oyam, just like the government, has great appreciation of women leaders, so far it is going to be one of the districts with all leaders female in Parliament.

Akena is the party president of UPC, NRM(Dr Tanga) to think Akena won’t go bare knuckle with them to protect his integrity was also thoughts in error. Oyam politics is one of the most monetized in Uganda. The NRM understimated this factor in this election.

Ugandan’s Kingfisher oil field is operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), as part of a joint deal with French oil giant TotalEnergies. Another oil field, Tilenga, is operated by TotalEnergies.

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

Uganda is estimated to have recoverable oil reserves of at least 1.4 billion barrels. Drilling began in January this year (2023), the project is expected to be completed within two years.

Speaking on behalf of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, corporate affairs manager Gloria Sebikari says the country is on track to begin producing oil by 2025.

She says $6.9 billion (USD) worth of contracts are being awarded, $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,” she explains.

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

Sebikari says work on the 897-mile (1,443-kilometer) East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is expected to begin this year.

It will be the world’s longest heated oil pipeline, transporting crude from fields near Lake Albert in western Uganda to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Tanga.

The $2.5 billion dollar project provoked concern from groups who argue the pipeline poses serious risk to the environment.

Some oil wells are to be drilled within Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park, where the Nile plummets 130 feet (40 meters) through a gap just 20 feet (6 meters) wide.

The surrounding wilderness is home to hippos, egrets, giraffes and antelopes.

The pipeline would then pass through seven forest reserves and two game parks, running alongside Lake Victoria, a source of freshwater for 40 million people.

That ecological fragility is one reason why some activists oppose the project despite assurances from TotalEnergies that the pipeline’s state-of-the-art-design will ensure safety for decades.

On Tuesday (26 June 2023) environmental groups brought another legal case against TotalEnergies in the French courts, the civil suit filed in Paris came four months after the collapse of a similar case brought by activists.

The new litigation cites TotalEnergies’ alleged failure to comply with France’s “duty of vigilance” law and seeks compensation for the company’s alleged violations of land and food rights over six years.

TotalEnergies has long denied the allegations.

A group of people were earmarked for compensation, either financial or housing, when TotalEnergies took over the Tilenga project.

Fifty-two-year-old Juliet Akumu got a house adjacent to the development area, but says she’s now concerned about environmental pollution from the oil field.

She says a dust cloud recently covered her entire village.

“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,” says Akumu.

Sebikari from Petroleum Authority of Uganda says 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,” she says.

“As government and the project partners, we have taken deliberate steps to ensure that the oil and gas projects are developed sustainably, we have taken care of the environment and biodiversity concerns.

“We are also ensuring that the livelihoods of the communities surrounding this operations are improved alongside the development of the projects.”

Waste management company EnviroServ is one of the companies licensed to handle the oil waste.

It’s facility manager, Peter Odil , says they have been meeting all regulatory requirements in its mandate to protect the environment from hazardous waste.

“We are compelled by the law to make sure that we monitor our activities here,” he says.

“We have eleven monitoring wells in layman’s term, you can call it 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.”

Aside from environmental concerns, some say Uganda’s plans to tap oil from Lake Albert may cause tensions with the Democratic Republic of Congo due to their close border.

Felix Ocitti, manager of operations and compliance at Petroleum Authority of Uganda, says they’ve already put measures in place to resolve that.

“As far as we are aware right now, we do not have any claims from Congo in as far as this project is concerned, because there is no evidence right now that our resources actually cross the border,” he says.

“If that happens, we have mechanisms through which we shall be able to develop our field and those three mechanisms I have mentioned are options that we have at the table.

“It is always at the discretion of the countries to negotiate and find what is best for us to be able to employ.”