For millions of Ugandans earning only $1,000 a year, the prospect of being dragged out of poverty by the world’s largest heated oil pipeline is enticing.
But an understandable unease surrounds a project, which has the potential to pump 240,000 barrels of oil a day, 3 kilometres deep from under the red soil, to transform the fortunes of this landlocked East African nation.
The $10 billion (Dh36 billion) project is a collaboration between TotalEnergies EP Uganda (TotalEnergies), China National Offshore Oil Corporation Uganda Limited (CNOOC) and the Uganda National Oil Company (Unoc).
Uganda has faced up to a nation-changing dilemma. While the pipeline has already led to thousands in its path being shifted from their homes and threatens to disturb almost 2,000 square kilometres of protected wildlife habitats, there is the potential to change the lives of millions living in rural poverty and double the national GDP to about $80 billion.
We have to look at how we take advantage of these enormous resources to transform societies that are very much looking forward to having clean water, access to health services and clean energy
Bob Natif,
assistant commissioner at the climate change department of the Ministry of Water and Environment
It is still at least a year before oil begins to flow from the two huge production sites at Kingfisher and Tilanga, which has already brought some benefits to communities but sparked outcry from activists over its impact on the environment.
“As a government, without doubt, we must continue decarbonising across the board,” Irene Batebe, permanent secretary of Uganda’s Ministry of Energy, told The National.
“And as a country, we are determined to become independent in terms of our energy security but also resilient when looking for home-grown solutions so we can handle the global shocks like we saw arising from the Russia Ukraine war.
“Even with the commitment we are undertaking, we believe the oil and gas sector can still coexist with our plans for renewable energy."
Renewable energy
Hydro power stations are scattered across Uganda, from the rapids of the White Nile at Jinja to Murchison Falls National Park and the banks of Lake Albert, generating 80 per cent of the country's power supply.
Rangers inside the stunning Murchison Falls said while animal movements had been tracked as part of the oil pipeline’s environmental risk study, concerns remained over drilling in such a sensitive, richly biodiverse region.
Environmental-impact assessments have been branded inadequate or vague by critics, while the region’s seismic activity has left some wondering what could happen to the scores of oil wells planned to serve the vast East African Crude Oil Pipeline if an earthquake strikes.
Tanzania stands to be the country most affected by the 1,400km pipeline, that will be 24 inches wide and run two metres underground, as infrastructure stretches from the Ugandan oil city of Hoima close to Lake Albert, to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga.
Development contracts worth more than $7 billion have already been handed out, a quarter to Ugandan companies.
But because of the negative association with fossil fuels, many international banks and insurers have distanced themselves from financing the project.
Will land owners count the cost?
More than 3,550 households have already been displaced by the project, with 95 per cent of disputes resolved, project representatives say.
Dickens Kamugisha, chief executive for Africa Institute for Energy Governance, said some land owners were paid below current market value.
“From the start, the government and companies have been telling communities the discovery of oil is going to make life better, you will get jobs, you will get hospitals, you will get water, you will get education,” he said.
“Since 2006, the biggest victims have been people owning land where oil activities are taking place.
"Nowhere in that oil region have people been compensated on time.
"Many had no option to say 'we can't take this compensation'.
"If you assess in 2019 and you pay in 2023, then prices have changed, the value of money has changed."
A spate of land-grabbing from opportunists hoping to cash in on the land's rising value since the oil discovery has distorted prices.
Agenonga William Oluwonga, 53, was given 60 million shillings ($16,000) in cash for four acres of land and has moved one kilometre from his home to make way for the 2,900 acre Tilanga Industrial Area development.
He has also been given a new breed of supersized goat to rear, cassava crops and fruit trees to provide a sustainable farming income.
“We were worried we would get trouble because our land has been taken by the oil and gas,” said Mr Oluwonga, who has two wives and 25 children, five of school age.
“I still have concerns as we live so close to the oil facility.
“I fear it will make so much noise I may fail to concentrate and enjoy living in my area, or that the smoke it produces may affect my welfare.
“These concerns are shared by everybody in the community.”
Buffer zone
A buffer zone has been created between communities and oil plants.
Reliable electricity supply and roads in and out of communities are improvements that may not have been realised without oil. Mr Oluwonga can also now afford to send his younger children to school.
“In my view, the future looks bright because I can see there is development here now,” he said.
“We never used to have electricity here and we have good roads, too.”
A key tenet of the project is to encourage rural communities to take up Liquid Petroleum Gas to cook and heat homes, rather than the biomass currently used.
Charcoal and wood felled from the thousands of hectares of forest have fuelled this nation for centuries.
It has created a double environmental blow of adding carbon to the atmosphere, while losing giant areas of forest that can sequester carbon from the air.
Rainforests such as the 17,700 hectare protected woodland reserve of Kakombe store billions of tonnes of carbon, protecting against climate change.
“Since 2017, there has been an active programme of restoring this forest reserve,” said Boaz Basigirenda, a manager in the Budongo System Range for the National Forestry Authority.
“Wildlife here is sensitive to any changes in its environment. This place initially had chimpanzees and we have records of elephants and hippos here.
“Due to the habitat modification and destruction, some animals moved to the marine areas and caused a lot of human wildlife conflict and loss of life.”
Environmental and economic concerns
Dickens Kamugisha, an advocate of the High Court of Uganda and a member of Uganda Law Society and East African Law Society, raised concern over Ugandans footing the bill for the grand plans.
"We must borrow almost 100 per cent of the money to be invested to build the oil infrastructure," he said.
"And it is poor Ugandans who will be forced to pay huge taxes in order to pay back these loans.
"We know 90 per cent of Ugandans survive on nature, that’s natural rainfall, natural food, natural everything.
"If we destroy the environment, we have destroyed our lives."
With Cop28 to open in Dubai on November 30, the timing of the final round of funding to secure development of a $5 billion oil refinery in Uganda could not be more stark.
Bob Natifu, assistant commissioner at the climate change department of the Ministry of Water and Environment, said oil discoveries had the potential to improve lives.
“It's the kind of aspiration everybody would want to achieve,” said Mr Natifu, who is leading Uganda's Cop28 delegation to Dubai.
“We want to see communities finance their own well-being, their individual livelihoods and how they are able to live in a peaceful and harmonious way without any dangerous ramifications.
“We have to look at how we take advantage of these enormous resources to transform societies that are very much looking forward to having clean water, access to health services and clean energy.
“I know for sure we have strong commitment to ensuring we transform societies from what they are currently to what we want them to be.”
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
The line up
Friday: Giggs, Sho Madjozi and Masego
Saturday: Nas, Lion Bbae, Roxanne Shante and DaniLeigh
Sole DXB runs from December 6 to 8 at Dubai Design District. Weekend pass is Dh295 while a one day pass is Dh195. Tickets are available from www.soledxb.com
ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2025, Thailand
UAE fixtures
May 9, v Malaysia
May 10, v Qatar
May 13, v Malaysia
May 15, v Qatar
May 18 and 19, semi-finals
May 20, final
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Race%20card
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The Uefa Awards winners
Uefa Men's Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Uefa Women's Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
Best players of the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League
Goalkeeper: Alisson (Liverpool)
Defender: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Midfielder: Frenkie de Jong (Ajax)
Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Uefa President's Award: Eric Cantona
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Points about the fast fashion industry Celine Hajjar wants everyone to know
- Fast fashion is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions
- Fast fashion is responsible for 24 per cent of the world's insecticides
- Synthetic fibres that make up the average garment can take hundreds of years to biodegrade
- Fast fashion labour workers make 80 per cent less than the required salary to live
- 27 million fast fashion workers worldwide suffer from work-related illnesses and diseases
- Hundreds of thousands of fast fashion labourers work without rights or protection and 80 per cent of them are women
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Getting there
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
Why are you, you?
Why are you, you?
From this question, a new beginning.
From this question, a new destiny.
For you are a world, and a meeting of worlds.
Our dream is to unite that which has been
separated by history.
To return the many to the one.
A great story unites us all,
beyond colour and creed and gender.
The lightning flash of art
And the music of the heart.
We reflect all cultures, all ways.
We are a twenty first century wonder.
Universal ideals, visions of art and truth.
Now is the turning point of cultures and hopes.
Come with questions, leave with visions.
We are the link between the past and the future.
Here, through art, new possibilities are born. And
new answers are given wings.
Why are you, you?
Because we are mirrors of each other.
Because together we create new worlds.
Together we are more powerful than we know.
We connect, we inspire, we multiply illuminations
with the unique light of art.
Ben Okri,
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EElmawkaa%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hub71%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ebrahem%20Anwar%2C%20Mahmoud%20Habib%20and%20Mohamed%20Thabet%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20PropTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETotal%20funding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24400%2C000%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E500%20Startups%2C%20Flat6Labs%20and%20angel%20investors%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2012%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Company profile
Name: One Good Thing
Founders: Bridgett Lau and Micheal Cooke
Based in: Dubai
Sector: e-commerce
Size: 5 employees
Stage: Looking for seed funding
Investors: Self-funded and seeking external investors
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 258hp from 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,550-4,000rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.1L/100km
Price: from Dh362,500
On sale: now
Specs – Taycan 4S
Engine: Electric
Transmission: 2-speed auto
Power: 571bhp
Torque: 650Nm
Price: Dh431,800
Specs – Panamera
Engine: 3-litre V6 with 100kW electric motor
Transmission: 2-speed auto
Power: 455bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: from Dh431,800
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The five pillars of Islam
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Company%20Profile
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More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
Company%C2%A0profile
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Women%E2%80%99s%20T20%20World%20Cup%20Qualifier
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Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
