Dr. Fred Kaliisa Kabagambe, the Senior Presidential Advisor on Oil and Gas, noted that limited public awareness about oil and gas developments has fueled opposition to EACOP activities in Uganda.
Rwot Acana claimed while there have been ongoing debates about the Sub-region having large deposits of oil and gas and other valuable minerals, such information is limited to a few individuals while the locals and leaders never get to know the details.
Nankabirwa says that many people are opposed to the oil and gas projects without having adequate information and calls upon oil and gas companies to allow access to members of the public to the installations.
“We are fully aware of the important social and environmental challenges it represents. We will pay particular attention to use local skills, to develop them through training programs, to boost the local industrial sector in order to maximize the positive local return of this project," said TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné.
Project Engineer, Tokwiny Charles Wabwire says the ground works will be completed and handed over to McDermott by April, who should start drilling on the Oil and gas drilling in July.
The index by Natural Resources Governance Institute (NRGI) rated Uganda's Mining Sector as slightly better governed than oil though still in "weak" category.
It finds that like the hydrocarbons sector , licensing and local impacts are a problem.
As spending rebounds towards pre-crisis levels, not enough is going into clean energy, especially in emerging market and developing economies, new IEA report finds
“So FID is a series of actions that basically ensure the projects are sanctioned for execution, it's never a one event or a contract that is signed. With the signing of the contracts that was done on the 11th, the projects have really been sanctioned," the Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer at the Uganda National Oil Company, Peter Muliisa clarified. "You will soon see Parties committing to spending by grant of contracts to subcontractors.”
While EACOP managers reason that construction should start from Tanzania because it has the largest land area coverage of the pipeline, sources indicate that it was decided that they start from the Tanzanian side because of Tanzania's less complicated land tenure system.
Kabuleta believes that there was no transparency in the negotiations of the contracts, which are meant to benefit a few individuals in power. He was speaking from Hoima Oil city where he spent Christmas day and campaigned in a number of places of worship.
