"Environment protection on hold as work to extract oil starts in Uganda" 8 December 2022

Protecting the environment and biodiversity was regarded as a key element in the planning of the East African crude oil pipeline (EACOP), the longest heated crude oil pipeline in the world. However, an undercover visit to Uganda’s Lake Albert region shows that the contractors, French company Total and state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), are harming biodiversity and livelihoods in the area. [...]

Close to the safari cars in Uganda’s world-famous game reserve, new roads are being constructed to transport cranes and piles of steel tubes. Some of the fishing communities are now bordered by large construction sites. The new activity is being driven by oil extraction and a new pipeline, managed by the EACOP consortium, which is operated by Uganda, Tanzania, French TotalEnergies and China’s state-owned energy giant, CNOOC. [...]

Throughout the visits we not only observed and documented heavy machinery constructing roads and preparing the pipeline inside the national park, but also how fishing communities and their livestock in Buhuka flats were trapped next to the construction site of an oil well near the Kingfisher oil field, which is operated by CNOOC. The Kingfisher field is next to the shore in the southern part of Lake Albert. From this field, a feeder pipeline will transport oil to the main pipeline. [...] The observations from our field trips in this sensitive environment are in sharp contrast to the original intentions of Kingfisher project as well as wide development of Uganda’s oil and gas activities EACOP. [...]

Despite the highlighted negative impacts in the ESIA, it has been criticized for several weaknesses by civil society organizations claiming that the negative impact will be even bigger. [...]