A high stakes oil project in the extremely delicate Albertine region has environmentalists worried about the possibility of spills harming unique wildlife and important forests in both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
A report written by E-tech International at the request of the Environmental Defenders (ED) accuses Uganda of approving flawed upstream petroleum projects that constitute a threat to communities and ecologically sensitive areas around Lake Albert, with the DRC as a major sticking issue, since the country will not benefit from the proceeds.
The 2025 report also accuses Uganda of disregarding international agreements to explore, drill, construct, develop and produce crude oil in the most ecologically sensitive parts of and around Lake Albert.
Tilenga operated by TotalEnergies and Kingfisher, which is under the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) are the two oilfields under active development. Both are located on the shores of Lake Albert and have the potential to devastate Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP), the River Nile and permanent wetlands that drain into Bugoma forest.
While oilfields for Tilenga and Kingfisher are located on the shores, the Ngassa oil block, currently in the exploratory phase, would present even more danger, as it requires the installation and use of offshore platforms inside Lake Albert.
“Since 2006, a series of oil discoveries under and around Lake Albert in Uganda have led to investment by a consortium of multinational companies, most prominently CNOOC and Total, and the Ugandan Government,” notes the report from ED.
Threats to Lake Albert in both Uganda and DRC include oil spills, the discharge of treated sewage into the Lake, and the extraction of water. Communities on the sides of Lake Albert and DRC have expressed concern regarding plans to extract water during the oil production phase and the decommissioning of Kingfisher.
Additionally, Tilenga is located near the point where Lake Albert terminates into the River Nile, and as such, oil activities have the potential to harm the interests of several other countries.
In 2019, Uganda ratified the Nile River Basin Cooperative. The agreement negotiated among the Nile Riparian countries, which include Burundi, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda is supposed to balance the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
According to the report, Uganda is not meeting the standards set in the Nile River Basin Cooperative, as the decisions made in the use of Lake Albert don’t meet the equitable and reasonable use metric that is highlighted in the agreement.
“Under the agreement, states shall take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm to other Basin states,” notes the report.
The effects of Ugandan Oil Projects in the Lake Albert Region report also include the possible disregard of the Ramsar Convention of 1971. The Ramsar Convention, which Uganda ratified in 1988, sets a number of obligations aimed at the conservation and wise use of wetlands through local action.
The experts in the report say there are major problems with the locations chosen for upstream petroleum projects in the Albertine region.
In the 2019 report assessing the adequacy of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA) for Kingfisher, for example, E-Tech International highlights the location of the Central Processing Facility on the delicate Buhuka Flats as one of the inadequacies.
“Best practice is to locate the Central Processing Facility above the escarpment to avoid highly sensitive Buhuka Flats and Lake Albert,” says E-Tech International in its assessment.
E-Tech International also decries the location of the well pads and feeder pipeline connecting Kingfisher to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), as well as the use of a drilling rig that is dependent on using 6000 kilowatt diesel engine. Electric motors for the drilling rig are recommended as a better alternative in the Albertine region, where the abundance of wildlife means noise should be minimized.
Ugandan officials have dismissed the findings of the environmentalists, arguing that the government and concerned players in the Albertine region have taken all the necessary steps to explore and develop oilfields in one of the world’s most complex ecosystems.
On the recommendations by E-Tech International on where to construct infrastructure for oil exploration and production, Dr Akakwasah Barirega, the Executive Director of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), explains that Uganda has done well so far.
“Tilenga has been here since 2006, and it has been progressing very well. It is one of the most successful oil and gas projects in a sensitive ecosystem—perhaps in the whole world,” he says.
Dr Barirega explains that members of the joint venture partnership made up of EACOP, TotalEnergies and the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) invested in elaborate and detailed ESIAs, as well as geological studies to ensure adequate understanding of all the impacts.
“All impacts were studied, subjected to public hearings, and external review support was sought from Norway and the Netherlands,” he adds.
The report from Environmental Defenders and E-Tech International does not support Dr Barirega’s protestations though, noting instead that the CNOOC and Total ESIAs have been criticized for understating the risks.
Some of the criticism is from the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), which pointed to technical and legal flaws in the ESIAs.
“They [NCEA] noted the presence of inconsistent numbers, incomplete design, unfinished decision-making, lack of justifications for the choice among different alternatives, lack of credibility of the net gain concept, non-transparent trade-offs between oil development and other potential uses of natural resources and ecosystem services,” reads an excerpt from the ED and E-Tech International report.
The report from ED and E-Tech International adds that NCEA noted the absence of mitigation measures regarding some of the identified impacts and an insufficient ambition to abide by good international industry practice.