Day 22 #90daysofoil
In the fourth week of the 90 Days of oil and gas, the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum (UCMP) brings you insights as to how the sector is striving to achieve the balance between development and the environment.
The week’s theme runs as thus “Environment and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA)for Albertine oil and gas projects”. ESIA is a legal requirement for all projects regardless of the magnitude or location.
The three months long campaign is aimed at creating awareness regarding ongoing activities and accruing opportunities in Uganda’s oil and gas sector. It also aims at providing information regarding Uganda’s conformity to local and international regulations in environmental protection.
The campaign dubbed 90 Days of Oil and Gas follows renewed activities in the sector after partners in the development of the Lake Albert oil project (together with the Uganda and Tanzania governments) announced the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the integrated upstream and downstream projects on 1st Feb 2022.
In a bid to understand how the oil and gas activities have impacted the lives of rural communities, the environment, local governments, entrepreneurs, small and medium scale businesses, and large multinational companies, UCMP visited the center of oil and gas activities in the Albertine Rift, and this week brings you what is happening on the ground in respect to environmental protection.
Environmentalists have raised concerns over oil and gas extraction in Uganda’s critical biodiversity areas, on grounds that the activities will ruin the environment. But ESIA reports show that development can happen without necessarily destroying the ecosystem.