Philkol Mpairwe, a businessman in Buliisa who owns a hotel, explains that they invested a lot in the hotel industry targeting the oil workers, but unfortunately, the oil companies have resorted to accommodating their workers in camps, abandoning their hotels and lodges.
An Oil rig erected near the central Processing Facility-CPF for Tilenga oil project in Buliisa. Hotel owners are faulting oil companies for accomodating workers in camps.Photo by Emmanuel Okello.
Hotel and lodge owners in the Bunyoro sub-region are crying foul as oil companies have resorted to accommodating workers in camps. This situation has badly impacted the hotel industry in the region.
Following the discovery of oil and gas in the region, the government mobilized both local and international investors to invest in the hotel industry to help accommodate thousands of workers who would flock to the region to work in the crucial sector.
At the start of the oil exploration in the Albertine Graben, the districts of Hoima, Kikuube, and Buliisa experienced a significant increase in demand for accommodation by investors, businessmen, and workers in oil-related activities.
This situation led to the demand for accommodation, compelling investors and the business community to begin the construction of hotels and lodges to accommodate the ever-increasing number of people flocking to the region to work in the oil and gas industry.
The increase in hotel bookings meant that hotels provided important local revenue opportunities associated with the crucial oil and gas sector. However, as the construction of production facilities increases and the country gears up for the development phase to extract the 6.5 billion barrels of oil, hotel and lodge owners have started crying foul as the oil companies—both China National Offshore Oil Corporation Uganda Limited (CNOOC) and TotalEnergies EP—have resorted to accommodating their workers in their camps, abandoning the services of the established local hotels in the region.
Uganda Radio Network (URN) has reliably established that TotalEnergies EP, operating the Tilenga oil fields in Buliisa district, has already finished constructing 1,000 of the 4,000 housing units planned to accommodate workers. Currently, all the oil company workers are being accommodated in the camp.
On the other hand, China National Offshore Oil Corporation Uganda Limited, which operates the Kingfisher Development Area in Buhuka in Kikuube district, is also constructing approximately 2,000 housing units for company workers, and currently, almost all their workers are being accommodated in the camp.
This situation leaves the hotel business in the region in agony since the owners expected to reap big from the oil and gas industry. Philkol Mpairwe, a businessman in Buliisa who owns a hotel, explains that they invested a lot in the hotel industry targeting the oil workers, but unfortunately, the oil companies have resorted to accommodating their workers in camps, abandoning their hotels and lodges.
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Simon Agaba Kinene, also a businessman in Kakindo cell in Buliisa, says the locals expected a lot from the oil industry and established hotels and lodges to accommodate the oil workers. But this is not the case as the oil companies have ferried all their workers to the camps.
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Charles Onen, who established his lodges in Ngwedu village near the central processing facility (CPF) for the Tilenga oil project, says he targeted the oil workers to be accommodated in his lodges but was surprised when the company ferried all its workers and accommodated them in the camp.
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Joseph Kusiima, a businessman in Kikuube, says he established lodges in Kyangwali trading center in Kyangwali sub-county, just a few kilometers from the Kingfisher Oil Development Area, targeting to accommodate workers in the oil sector. But he was shocked when the oil company erected structures to accommodate its workers in the camp.
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Robert Kyalisiima, one of the hotel owners in Hoima City, faults the government for allowing oil companies to establish their own housing units near the oil projects, stating that this greatly affects the hotels that were constructed targeting the industry.
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Vincent Alpha Opio, the Kikuube LC5 Vice Chairperson, says it is not relevant for the oil companies to accommodate workers in their camps yet people who set up hotels targeted these workers to be occupying their facilities. He states that by establishing their own housing units to accommodate workers, the element of local content is not being given priority by the oil companies.
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A source at CNOOC Uganda Limited, who spoke to URN on condition of anonymity since he is not authorized, explained that the oil companies feel it is not appropriate to transport workers on a daily basis from far places to the areas where the oil projects are being undertaken. This, he said, could frustrate their effective operations.
Fred Lukumu, the Buliisa LC5 Chairperson, says revenues from the hotel industry in the district have drastically reduced ever since the oil companies operating in the district started housing workers in the camp.
