Uganda names oil Pearl Sweet before first exports

Uganda officially named its oil “Pearl Sweet” on Wednesday as it prepared to begin first exports by the end of the year.

Energy secretary Irene Batebe said the Kingfisher oil site in western Uganda would come online by the end of this year with initial production of 28,000 barrels per day. She said Uganda expected the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and Kingfisher to enter production by then while work continued to bring the larger Tilenga site on board.

The two oil sites, run by TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, are close to completion and are expected eventually to give Uganda peak production capacity of 230,000 barrels per day. Batebe said Tilenga was 74 percent complete.

President Yoweri Museveni spoke at the oil-naming ceremony in Hoima district, where a 60,000-barrel-per-day refinery is also being built. The name Pearl Sweet refers to Uganda's nickname, the “pearl of Africa”, and to the oil's low sulphur content.

Most of the oil is due to be pumped from landlocked Uganda through the newly built East African Crude Oil Pipeline to the Tanzanian coast. The 1,443-kilometre pipeline is described as the world's longest heated pipeline. Uganda's oil is viscous and must be kept at 50C to move through the pipeline.

The project has drawn criticism from environmental and rights groups. NGOs say more than 100,000 people have been displaced, with many criticising limited transparency and insufficient or slow compensation. Critics have described the project as a “carbon bomb” that will release 379 million tonnes of climate-heating pollution over its lifetime.

TotalEnergies says strict measures have been taken to avoid, reduce and offset environmental impact, and says it has compensated 99 percent of displaced households.