Uganda oil deal

Uganda Oil Deal

A lobby group has exposed a secret deal between the Ugandan national government and a large UK oil firm that is putting the country's environment at risk.

The BBC has reported that pressure group Platform revealed how London-based Tullow Oil had framed a deal with no provision for the environmental or social impact of oil extraction in Uganda.

Uganda is believed to be sitting on the largest onshore oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa, but concerns have been growing for some time that the influx of petrodollars could encourage corruption as well as degrade the environment.

Wealth of natural resources

"The confidential documents we have published make clear that the corporations and the government cannot be trusted to protect the Ugandan people from the negative impacts of oil extraction," said Platform's Kampala researcher Taimour Lay.

However Tullow have hit back saying the deal was legitimate and that company practices would not allow for the environment to be compromised.

Africa's wealth of natural resources has often led to conflict within the continent, and many NGOs are concerned that the deals that are struck by African governments and foreign oil firms that come in to extract the oil rarely benefit the wider population.

Experts say oil wealth in places such as Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria and Libya has brought little benefit to the general population.

Learning lessons from the past

Uganda have been urged to learn their lesson from other African nations by not rushing into deals in an effort to see cash-flow coming from exploration as quickly as possible. Platform have pleaded with the Ugandan government to renegotiate the deal with Tullow.

Uganda's long-serving president Yoweri Museveni has rejected the example of Nigeria, whose oil wealth has helped to spread poverty, destabilise the country and destroy the natural habitat in the Niger Delta, instead promising to follow in the footsteps of Norway.

The damage Platform is referring to comes from the burning off of excess gas, called oil flaring. This emits a huge amount of greenhouse gases.

Up to now Museveni has remained relatively quiet on the issue, but Uganda's Minerals Minister Peter Lokeris has repeatedly promised that the oil extraction would respect the environment.

It remains to be seen whether the deal will in fact harm Uganda's social stability as well as the environment.

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