Total’s Uganda Project to Help Create New Africa Oil Hub by 2025

Other prospects, including fields in South Sudan and Uganda’s planned 60,000 barrel-a-day plant, could make up a larger oil network. “Now that we have our own oil, there’s no way we can continue importing refined products with all that additional transport cost,” Museveni said.

China Market Access Is What Africa Needs Next, Says Ugandan Leader

Uganda is among a number of African nations — from Senegal to Mozambique — that expect to profit from planned oil and gas projects, even as many countries seek to cut reliance on fossil fuels because of the effect on global warming. The country is also facing opposition from civil society groups, whose concerns on the planned pipeline’s impact on the environment and local communities prompted potential funders such as Standard Bank Group Ltd. to assess their own involvement. 

They are “just wasting people’s time,” Museveni said of the non-governmental organizations opposing the project. Uganda is responsible for a small fraction of greenhouse-gas emissions, compared with global industrial superpowers like China and the U.S.

Oil will remain important to the world as it has uses other than fuel, including the manufacturing of plastics, petrochemicals and fertilizer, Museveni said.

The president’s timeline for the projects will be a challenge. Uganda’s oil reserves were discovered about 15 years ago, followed by ongoing delays that included changing the export route. Breaking ground for the $4 billion refinery has also been elusive. The international companies are set to develop the fields, as well as a 1,443-kilometer (897-mile) heated pipeline to transport the waxy crude to the port of Tanga in Tanzania.