President Yoweri Museveni has launched "the start of the drilling campaign on the Kingfisher oil field (in western Uganda, editor's note) which should produce 40,000 barrels of oil per day" in 2025, announced on Twitter l Uganda Petroleum Authority.

This oil field is operated by the Chinese company CNOOC.

Some 31 wells will be located on the Kingfisher field.

"We are excited as a country but also for Africa," Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa told AFP.

Lake Albert, the natural border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), holds an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of crude oil, of which around 1.4 billion are currently considered recoverable.

The first drop of Ugandan oil is expected to flow in 2025, nearly two decades after the reserves were discovered.

The delay is notably due to a lack of infrastructure, such as an oil pipeline.

Chinese employees in discussion during the launch of the drilling of the Kingfisher oil fields, in the Kikuube district of Uganda, on January 24, 2023 © Stuart Tibaweswa / AFP

TotalEnergies announced in February 2022 a $10 billion investment agreement with Uganda, Tanzania and the Chinese company CNOOC, including the construction of a 1,443 kilometer pipeline linking the Lake Albert deposits in the western Uganda, to the Tanzanian coast on the Indian Ocean.

The Ugandan authorities issued the license for the construction of the pipeline on January 20.

The project, however, has met with opposition from environmental activists and groups who believe it threatens the region's fragile ecosystem and the people who live there.

In a non-binding resolution, the European Parliament said it was "extremely concerned about the human rights violations" committed in Uganda and Tanzania, citing "arrests, acts of intimidation and judicial harassment against human rights defenders human beings and non-governmental organizations".

Six NGOs sued TotalEnergies before the Paris judicial court at the end of 2022, summoning the group to respect a law passed in 2017 which imposes on multinationals a "duty of vigilance" on their activities in the world.

The deliberation is expected on February 28.

Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1986, described the project as a major economic source for this landlocked country in the Great Lakes region, where many people live in poverty.

Borehole of the Kingfisher oil field, inaugurated on January 24, 2023 in Kikuube district, Uganda © Stuart Tibaweswa / AFP

Uganda's reserves can last between 25 and 30 years, with peak production estimated at 230,000 barrels per day.

© 2023 AFP