Why Uganda’s Kingfisher oil project is bad for people, climate and the environment

From a distance, Ugandan anti-oil protests might not seem to make much sense.

Uganda found “black gold”. Big multinational companies with world-class technical expertise and global clout have offered to partner to build a huge pipeline through neighbouring Tanzania, from where the oil will flow onto supertankers and then to countries around the world. 

The government says the resulting $15 billion project will make a poor, landlocked country rich. Everybody wins, right?

Not exactly.

Our seven-month investigation into the “Kingfisher” oil project operated by the state-owned Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) uncovered a litany of abuse that is actually making local residents worse off. Much worse off. And they continue to tell us that they want the project halted. 

It’s time for the banks and insurance companies that are considering support for Kingfisher, and related oil and gas projects, to publicly announce that they will play no part in their further development. 

Along the shores of Lake Albert, the Kingfisher project and a second, larger project called Tilenga (also the site of serious human rights violations), operated by the French oil giant Total, is jointly owned by Total (56.67%), CNOOC (28.33%) and the Uganda National Oil Company (15%). 

Along with the Ugandan government, these companies are responsible for everything that happens at Kingfisher. These responsibilities include adhering to Ugandan law, respecting the human rights of local residents, compensating those harmed by the project and taking action to ensure accountability for violations that are committed. They are failing on all counts.

Kingfisher has been, and continues to be, the site of forced evictions; inadequate or non-existent compensation for land and other assets; coercion and intimidation in the land acquisition process; reduced standards of living and impoverishment; labour rights violations and sexual and gender-based violence. 

Consider the story of Solomon Atuhaire (a pseudonym, as all interviewees were too scared to use their real names), from the village of Kiina, who along with his family and neighbours, was abruptly forced from his home by soldiers to make way for CNOOC. 

“By 6am, the village was swarming with 30 to 40 military personnel. The soldiers declared: ‘We don’t want you here.’ People protested that they had nowhere to go, prompting the army to start shooting, some shots were fired into the air, others aimed to scare. 

“The villagers began to flee. I immediately entered my house, told my wife we are leaving, closed the house and the shop, and directly left.”

Joseph Mugisha from the village of Nzunsu B said that CNOOC agents threatened that he would lose everything if he persisted in his refusal to sign a “voluntary” compensation agreement for his land: “I was not happy and didn’t want to sign at the beginning. But [CNOOC] told me that if I didn’t sign, the land would be taken freely.”

Community members who have sought jobs with CNOOC’s subcontractors report poor treatment, including excessive hours; low wages; hazardous working conditions; failure to provide employment contracts and pay promised wages and demands for bribes to obtain jobs. 

Women described sexual violence resulting from threats, intimidation or coercion by Ugandan soldiers in the Kingfisher project area. Climate Rights International also received reports of sexual violence by managers and superiors within oil companies operating at Kingfisher, including one involving a CNOOC employee. 

According to one woman, “At the job, if you refuse to sleep with your boss, you can be chased away very fast.” 

The development of the Kingfisher project has also led to the degradation of the natural environment, including land, water and air pollution. Fisherfolk report seeing oil slicks and dead fish in the lake, and a drastic reduction in fish in the Kingfisher area. 

Two whistleblowers who worked for the CNOOC subcontractor in charge of drilling activities told Climate Rights International that they were instructed to dump oil and chemical waste directly into the lake, as well as on land, where it subsequently flows into the lake. 

The entire project is a disaster for climate change. An analysis by the Climate Accountability Institute concluded that it would produce around 379 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 25 years.

Peak annual emissions would be more than double the current annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania combined. Like all new oil and gas projects, its development is incompatible with the Paris Agreement’s targets and a livable planet.

Large numbers of Ugandans regularly engage in public protests but face harsh repercussions from a government with a long record of repression and abuse. 

In June 2024, Stephen Kwikiriza (his real name), an environmental observer with the Environmental Governance Institute, was abducted, interrogated, beaten and disappeared for several days by the Uganda People’s Defence Force. 

Kwikiriza had documented the environmental devastation and human rights violations suffered by his community from the Kingfisher project. He is just one of many campaigners against oil projects targeted by Ugandan authorities. 

President Yoweri Museveni has barely hidden how he views things, declaring, “[That’s] my oil. I won’t allow anybody to play around with it.” 

Ugandans living near the Kingfisher project can be forgiven for wondering just who will benefit. With billions of dollars at stake, many fear state and elite capture of the profits by a government renowned for corruption. 

According to Henry Lwanga, whose family was evicted from their home, “We have one meal per day — the same for everyone in the family. Sometimes even that meal is missing and we take only tea.” 

CNOOC committed to adhere to International Finance Corporation Standards on Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement. But the reality has been far different. CNOOC must provide fair and prompt compensation for communities and individuals who have lost land, assets and livelihoods, in line with its claim to abide by international standards and recognised best practices.

But once it does this, as Ugandan and other African activists who make up the #StopEACOP [East African Crude Oil Pipeline] campaign have long been saying, the project should end. 

They might have no choice. Major banks and insurance companies based in Europe, Japan and North America have publicly ruled out support for these projects. It’s time for all banks and insurance companies, whether in China, the Gulf States, Europe, Africa or elsewhere, to publicly reject any continuing or further support for EACOP. 

While the Ugandan government is now desperately seeking additional finance, aside from South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, few appear willing to take the reputational hit. Although his government has practically begged China to come to its rescue, Museveni appears to have come back empty-handed from a recent trip to China. 

Beijing has become increasingly sensitive to negative local public opinion as its brand has eroded across Africa due to bullying and predatory economic behaviour. Indeed, the Chinese authorities have to be careful in weighing their allegiance to an ageing autocrat versus a young population that is likely to remember which side it was on. One only has to look at recent events in Bangladesh to realise just how fragile even seemingly stable autocratic systems can be.

The Kingfisher and Tilenga projects, as well as EACOP, are not only a dangerous carbon bomb but also a human rights disaster. As the world faces the crisis of climate change, international donors, financial institutions and multinational companies considering investing in Uganda should focus on renewable energy instead of oil and gas. 

The Kingfisher project is bad for people, bad for the environment and very bad for climate change. CNOOC and TotalEnergies should clean up, pack up and go home. 

Brad Adams is the executive director of Climate Rights International.