A big Ugandan oil project is progressing at last

SOON MORECNOOC than 200,000 barrels of oil a day will flow through Fred Lubowa’s garden: past his tin-roofed house, under his banana trees, and beneath the spot which currently houses the family graves. But for now the only sign of the disruption to come is a line of wooden stakes in the undergrowth. It is three years since surveyors came to his village in Kyotera district, central Uganda, to mark the route for the longest heated pipeline in the world. It will carry oil 1,443 kilometres from the shores of Lake Albert to the Tanzanian coast. He has waited, in limbo.On February 1st TotalEnergies, a French oil giant, and , a state-owned Chinese firm, and their partners announced a “final investment decision” on Ugandan oil, the last milestone before work can begin. The field to be exploited was declared viable in 2006, but progress stalled as the government arm-wrestled with foreign companies over tax and a planned refinery. Covid-19 caused further hold-ups. For people in Uganda’s oil region, life now follows the rhythms of distant boardrooms. They are not the only ones wondering whether the project makes sense.