Uganda’s Minister of Energy called “displaced”, Tuesday, October 4, a resolution of the European Parliament against a mega-project of oil exploitation planned with the French group TotalEnergies, the European institution pinning “human rights violations” towards opponents.
TotalEnergies announced in February a 10 billion dollar investment agreement with Uganda, Tanzania and the Chinese oil giant Cnooc for a mega oil project including the construction of an oil pipeline of more than 1,400 km linking the fields of the Lake Albert in western Uganda to the Tanzanian coast. In a non-binding resolution, the European Parliament said “extremely concerned about human rights violations” committed in these two countries, citing “arrests, acts of intimidation and judicial harassment against human rights defenders and non-governmental organizations”.
6.5 billion barrels of crude
The intervention of the European Parliament is “displaced”Ruth Nankabirwa, Uganda’s energy minister, told AFP on the sidelines of the Green Energy Africa Summit in Cape Town, South Africa, saying authorities in Kampala have been taken ” by surprise “. “We are all partners in the fight against climate change. If we don’t see each other as partners, we’re not going to win this war.”added M.me Nankabirwa. Africa is the continent that emits the least greenhouse gases, with only 3% of global emissions.
On September 16, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni indicated that the project “will continue as stipulated in the contract we have with TotalEnergies and Cnooc”. Under the waters and on the shores of Lake Albert, a 160 km natural barrier separating Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), lies the equivalent of 6.5 billion barrels of crude oil, of which approximately 1.4 billion recoverable in the current state of discoveries. Uganda’s reserves can last between twenty-five and thirty years, with peak production estimated at 230,000 barrels per day. President Museveni, who has ruled Uganda with an iron fist since 1986, has praised the project in the past, citing in particular the economic benefits for this landlocked country where the majority of the population lives below the poverty line.
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