More than 105 Tilenga oil Project Affected Persons (PAPs) in Buliisa District have today (Monday), June 12, 2023, received their resettlement houses, land titles and agricultural equipment in that part of Mid-Western Uganda.
The beneficiaries are people who were displaced during land identification for the construction of the Tilenga oil project facilities and associated projects in Buliisa.
The houses designed to last for at least 25 years, are part of the planned 205 to be built on pieces of land chosen by the PAPs themselves, according to the Director of Social Performance at TotalEnegies, Ms Joy Muballe.
The houses have two to four bedrooms depending on the original structure, a sitting room, a veranda, an outside kitchen and a solar-powered system. A rain water harvest water tank with a capacity of 5,000 litres and a Ventilated Improved Pit Latrine have been provided for every unit.
Handing over the houses, Uganda’s Energy and Mineral Development Minister, Dr Ruth Nankabirwa, said as the government exploits the country’s resources to better the financial status of the citizens, it is committed to ensuring that the environment is protected.
“We promised to implement Uganda’s oil and gas projects while safeguarding the environment and transforming the lives of our people. We shall sustainably exploit Uganda’s resources for social and economic transformation. I hope the world is watching what is happening here,” she said.
Completion and handover of the remaining houses is expected to take place at the end of August 2023, according the minister.
Through its Agricultural Support Services Programme, TotalEnergies handed over post-harvest handling equipment to 20 farmer groups and associations formed by the PAPs.
The equipment include silos, cassava chippers, drying racks and milling plants among others intended to support farmers to access and utilise good agronomic practices to bolster their household income levels.
TotalEnergies General Manager, Mr Philippe Groueix together with the Project Engineer of Resettlement Houses, Ms Josephine Muyimba, toured around the newly constructed houses that were handed over today and interacted with some of the PAPs.
“I have joined Project Affected Persons to peel cassava which will be chipped, dried and milled for eating using the post-harvest handling equipment distributed as part of the Tilenga Project Livelihood Restoration Programme,” Mr Groueix said.
Tilenga is one of the two upstream oil projects in Lake Albertine (Mwitanzige) operated by French TotalEnergies in Buliisa an Nwoya districts in Bunyoro and West Nile regions of Uganda and the Kingfisher project by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in Kikuube district also in the Bunyoro region.
The upstream partners include TotalEnergies with a share of 56.67%; CNOOC (28.33%) and Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) with 15%.
The crude oil will be transported from the oilfields in the mid-western region to the Central Processing Facility (CPF) at Kabaale village in Kabaale sub-county, Hoima district to the port of Tanga at Chongeleani in Tanzania.
This will be through the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) cross border pipeline from Hoima TotalEnergies, Uganda, Tanzania and CNOOC as shareholders.
