Uganda oil minister hits back at critics of oil plans

Uganda's oil minister today gave a robust defence of the country's planned oil projects, saying more developed nations cannot tell the developing world "to remain in darkness".

Uganda is simultaneously developing its upstream and downstream capacity, with a 60,000 b/d refinery to be fed from the 230,000 b/d Lake Albert crude project that is due on stream in 2025. The Tilenga area will produce 190,000 b/d, and 40,000 b/d will come from the Kingfisher site. Kampala is also constructing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) that will take crude from Uganda's fields to the Tanzanian port of Tanga.

"We hope we will get the money, about $3bn to build this pipeline," oil minister Ruth Nankabirwa said today. "And this is not to say that we are not concerned about climate issues, we are." The $5bn EACOP project has come in for criticism from the European Parliament, which called on TotalEnergies — an upstream partner in Uganda — to delay construction and find a less environmentally-damaging route. TotalEnergies said the parliament was misinformed.

Nankabirwa today said disengaging with fossil fuels would come at the expense of Uganda's development and compromise its plans to increase domestic access to electricity.

"We cannot ignore climate change issues, but to stop us from developing or from getting our reserves, our resources is like you are telling us to remain in darkness," she said. "It is not either [using] gas or oil or solar [energy], or… it is all of those. We have solar [energy], we have geothermal [energy]. We have potential for nuclear in Uganda. And our energy mix equals all that."

She drew a parallel between the financial pressures that have steered Uganda towards progressing fossil fuel projects and some European nations' decision to bolster hydrocarbon use because of a dearth of clean alternatives.

"Europe is worried about how they're going to spend the winter because of the insecurity that has devolved because of the war, [between] Ukraine and Russia," Nankabirwa said. "So when you are such in need, you cannot be blamed why you're using coal, you want to survive. Likewise, Uganda cannot be blamed, why we are constructing a pipeline. Because we are insecure."

Nankabirwa's comments echo those of several Opec+ officials, including de facto coalition leader Saudi Arabia, who have previously defended the simultaneous use and development of hydrocarbon and green resources to avoid energy shortages.

By Nader Itayim and Ruxandra Iordache