Front row: L-R: TotalEnergies EP General Manager Philippe Groueix; TotalEnergies Senior Vice President for Africa Mike Sangster; TotalEnergies SE President for Exploration and Production Nicolas Terraz; President Museveni; Finance minister Matia Kasaija; Energy minister Ruth Nankabirwa; and Energy ministry Permanent Secretary Irene Bateebe pose with other oil industry officials at State House, Entebbe on April 22, following discussions on deployment of a second oil rig. PHOTO /PPU
Amid the Bastille Day carousing on July 14 at the French Ambassador’s residence in Nakasero, in the VIP section was a fireside meeting attended only by the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) officials and French Oil Company, TotalEnergies EP top executives.
The meeting, like all others, ran for hours. The matter at hand: The oil company’s proposed deployment of a second oil rig in the Murchison Falls National Park.
Like the July 14 fireside meeting, knowledgeable sources told Monitor, several high-stake discussions have taken place at the Petroleum House, seat of the PAU, in Entebbe, and Amber House, the Ministry of Energy headquarters in Kampala, among other places.
The discussions, according to sources, saw the TotalEnergies Senior Vice President Africa, Mr Mike Sangster, quietly return to the country on May 24 for the engagements with PAU, the oil sector regulator, and Ministry of Energy technocrats over the matter.
Mr Sangster was in the country the month before, accompanying the TotalEnergies SE President for Exploration and Production, Mr Nicolas Terraz for a meeting with President Museveni at State House, Entebbe, over the same matter.
During the May 22 meeting, industry sources intimated that Mr Sangster and the TotalEnergies EP executives in Kampala “provided some assurances and guarantees” on the concerns raised by the PAU, particularly environmental impacts and reservoir management components and cost/benefit analyses.
Of specific concern, insiders intimated, were fears that TotalEnergies EP would disproportionately concentrate on the “sweet spots”— shallow oil wells which allow cost-effective drilling—inside the Murchison Falls National Park to the disadvantage of both the environment and oil wells, including Ngiri, Gunya, Kigogole, Nsoga, and Kasamene, south of the River Nile, categorised as “deep wells” requiring deep hole drilling and with high costs involved.
Multiple sources told this newspaper that both government—represented by PAU and Ministry of Energy—and TotalEnergies EP have since reached an agreement “in principle” to deploy a second oil rig inside the park.
The agreement is, however, predicated on several conditions, including TotalEnergies EP undertaking an additional Field Development Plan detailing optimal drilling plans using the second rig; Environment and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) on impacts of second rig operations and approval by the National Environment Management Authority (Nema); and Enhanced Oil Recovery studies—the process of increasing the amount of oil that can be recovered from an oil reservoir.
“Ultimately they were going to drill in the park although it was a matter of sequencing. So in principle, we have reached an agreement but PAU has to agree to several of their (TotalEnergies’) studies,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity.
TotalEnergies EP was previously permitted to deploy one oil drilling rig at the Jobi-Rii five (JBR 5) well pad, nestled inside the wild savannah plains. A well pad is a site of facilities and other infrastructure for oil and gas drilling. Sixteen—production and injection—oil wells will be looped on the JBR5 well pad using a network of buried conductor pipes drilled together, and the area restored being feed grounds for the animals.
JBR 5 well pad, with an expanse of 19.5 acres, is one of the 10 proposed well pads, part of the Jobi-Rii production field inside the park.
The hastened deployment of the second rig by TotalEnergies EP, sources indicated, led PAU technocrats to fear that the company “would hurriedly drill the sweet spots” and achieve plateau—the time during the production history of an oil field where production is limited by surface conditions rather than the production ability of the field—and opt out leaving government with stranded assets.
The Jobi-Rii production field is one of the six production fields, alongside Ngiri, Gunya (GNA), Kasamene /Wahrindi, Kigogole, and Nsoga encompassing 412 oil wells, which comprise the Tilenga development project operated by TotalEnergies EP with majority stake if 56.67 percent, Cnooc with 28 percent, and Uganda National Oil Company with 15 percent.
The $4b (Shs15trillion Tilenga project straddles the districts of Nwoya (inside the park) and Buliisa, south of the River Nile.
The other two oil rigs, according to TotalEnergies EP’s earlier plans, would be stationed south of the River Nile at the Ngiri, Gunya, and Nsoga production fields, respectively.
This newspaper disclosed earlier in June how PAU had locked horns with TotalEnergies EP over the company’s eleventh-hour plans to deploy a second oil rig from the Gunya-4 (GNO4) well pad, south of the River Nile, into the park, which has been long feared will widen imprint of oil drilling activities in the eco-sensitive area.
Both PAU and Energy ministry technocrats declined to comment on the matter citing an agreed position with the French oil company to keep the matter out of the media.
However, one senior ministry official indicated that they were waiting for a notification from PAU “anytime” to grant the approval officially.
Section 85 of the Petroleum (Exploration, Development, and Production) Act (1) details that, a licensee (oil company) shall inform the minister of any significant deviation or alteration of the terms and preconditions on which a field development plan has been submitted or approved and any significant alteration of facilities or use of facilities.
Subsection two stipulates that the Minister (of Energy) may, on receipt of information under subsection (1), and on the recommendation of PAU, approve the deviation or alteration of the terms and preconditions on which a plan has been submitted or approved and any significant alteration of facilities, or may require a new or amended plan to be submitted for approval.
Following the first publication by this newspaper, environmentalists long opposed to oil activities in the park early last month released a report titled: “Murchison Falls National Park Is Dying” documenting the adverse impacts of oil activities on flora and fauna.
“Oil infrastructural development activities pose risks to the Ramsar site and other eco-sensitive areas in MFNP, thereby putting biodiversity conservation, as well as, tourism, fisheries and other livelihoods at risk. While the above may be the case, there is low stakeholder awareness of the status of oil infrastructural development activities in MFNP, and the risks these pose to biodiversity and Ugandans. This research brief seeks to remedy the challenge of low stakeholder awareness to promote biodiversity conservation and protect tourism as well as fisheries livelihoods among others,” reads in part the report by local NGO, Africa Institute for Energy Governance.
About Murchison
Murchison Falls National Park, according to the Ministry of Tourism, is Uganda’s most visited national park with some 141,335 visitors registered as at the end of last year. The park is home to several globally and regionally threatened animal and plant species.
