Uganda should fairly compensate landowners affected by a pipeline that will transport oil to an Indian Ocean port after accusations that some people reimbursed for earlier public projects were left worse-off, Oxfam International said.
The pipeline, estimated to cost $3.55 billion, is set for completion by the time oil production begins in Uganda’s western Lake Albertine basin in 2020 and will eventually transport 216,000 barrels per day. Developing the oil industry is part of the East African nation’s plan to achieve middle-income status, the World Bank’s definition for a country with a gross national income per capita between $1,045 and $12,736.
Gulf Interstate Engineering Co. is carrying out a feasibility study on the pipeline, which will be funded through equity and loans by partners in the project including oil companies. Ahlem Friga-Noy, a Uganda-based spokeswoman for the project’s lead sponsor, Total, didn’t respond to an email and phone call seeking comment.
The Africa Institute for Energy Governance, a non-governmental organization in the capital, Kampala, said on its website it sued the Ugandan government in 2014 because of allegedly inadequate compensation given to those moved from land on which an oil refinery was planned. It didn’t provide details on the outcome.
Bloomberg
