Kikuube: Museveni names Uganda’s crude oil Pearl Sweet 

KIKUUBE, September 2, 2026 — Uganda has named its crude oil Pearl Sweet, giving the grade a commercial identity that will allow it to be priced, marketed and sold to international refiners as the country moves closer to producing its first oil.

President Yoweri Museveni unveiled the name on Wednesday at the Kingfisher oilfield on Lake Albert, operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation [CNOOC], one of the two upstream projects that will produce the grade.

He signed off on the name during a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Energy Minister Dr Monica Musenero and the Energy Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Irene Batebe.

A crude grade cannot be quoted on trading screens or sold to refineries until it has a name and a published assay setting out its density, sulphur content and refining yield.

Musenero said the name carries a special meaning. “Sweet” reflects the crude’s very low sulphur content, making it cheaper to refine, while “Pearl” links the oil to Uganda, long known as the Pearl of Africa.

UNOC, the state oil company, will market the grade on behalf of the government alongside global trading house Vitol.

Museveni said he had initially opposed the construction of the pipeline that will carry Uganda’s crude for export, questioning why the country would ship out a resource that could be used to support its own economy.

“Even this pipeline, I did not support it initially,” he told the gathering, saying he had relented only on condition that a domestic refinery would have first call on the oil.

“You can export some of the crude, but the refinery must get priority,” he said.

That insistence, he argued, was commercial as much as political. Refining oil at home would avoid a pipeline transit fee that officials put at US$12.77 per barrel to transport crude to the Tanzanian coast and would help reduce Uganda’s annual petroleum import bill of about US$2 billion.

“We shall no longer spend US$2 billion a year importing petroleum,” Museveni said. “We shall buy our own.”

On the wider benefits of the oil industry, Museveni set out a doctrine of “using the exhaustible to create durable capacity”, urging that oil earnings be invested in power stations, railways and other lasting infrastructure rather than consumption.

“Please don’t expect to import more perfumes, and more wines, and more cars,” he said. “The money will be to do durable things … for the grandchildren.”

The government retains between 65 percent and 80 percent of upstream revenue under its production-sharing agreements and expects the fields to earn about US$2 billion annually at peak production.

Joint-venture partners have committed about US$15 billion to the oilfields and pipeline since the final investment decision in 2022. Of this amount, roughly US$7 billion has been spent so far, including about US$2.4 billion on the Kingfisher facility.

Museveni also pointed to revenue from associated gas that would previously have been flared.

Gas separated at Kingfisher will instead generate about 80 megawatts of electricity — which he likened to half the output of the old Nalubaale hydropower station — and supply a plant producing liquefied petroleum gas [LPG] for cooking.

He estimated combined annual earnings from the projects at about US$100 million, including US$30 million from power generation and US$70 million from LPG, while also reducing carbon emissions.

Pearl Sweet will be produced from two fields with identical ownership structures. TotalEnergies holds 56.67 percent, CNOOC 28.33 percent and UNOC 15 percent. CNOOC operates the Kingfisher project, while TotalEnergies operates the larger Tilenga project.

Kingfisher is expected to contribute about 40,000 barrels per day at peak production, while Tilenga, which is roughly four times larger, is expected to produce about 190,000 barrels per day, bringing combined output to approximately 230,000 barrels per day.

Batebe said Kingfisher was about 80 percent complete, with first-oil readiness at 98 percent and commissioning tests underway ahead of first oil, which she expects by the end of September.

Its central processing facility, which Museveni toured before the naming ceremony, has reached mechanical completion and is designed to handle 40,000 barrels per day. The President toured the plant’s crude oil, water-separation and LPG units.

At Tilenga, more than 210 wells had been drilled by July, exceeding the minimum number required for first oil, while construction continues on its processing facility.

The crude is waxy and low in sulphur and solidifies at normal temperatures, meaning it must be kept heated during transportation.

It will travel to the Tanzanian port of Tanga through the 1,443-kilometre East African Crude Oil Pipeline [EACOP], which will keep the crude heated along its entire length and is now 92.7 percent complete, according to Batebe.

A separate feeder line of about 47.5 kilometres links Kingfisher to shared facilities at Kabaale in Hoima, where the crude will join the main pipeline.

The government is also advancing plans for a refinery designed to process 60,000 barrels per day, expandable to 120,000 barrels per day. UNOC will take a 40 percent stake, with a final investment decision expected in February 2027.

Museveni and Musenero both described the refinery as central to ensuring that more value from Uganda’s petroleum resources remains within the country instead of exporting raw crude.

The Lake Albert basin holds an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of oil, of which up to 1.7 billion barrels are recoverable, according to UNOC.

Museveni said Kingfisher and Tilenga together tap only about 40 percent of the basin’s potential, while Batebe said exploration would be extended to the Kadam, Moroto, Lake Kyoga and Hoima basins, with a third licensing round planned this year.

Uganda joins other recent African oil producers in branding its crude. Ghana markets its oil as Jubilee, while Senegal began exporting its Sangomar grade in 2024.

Batebe said more than 18,000 people were employed in Uganda’s oil and gas sector, with 91 percent of them being Ugandans and more than 5,000 drawn from host communities.

She said Ugandans hold most management, technical and support positions, while Ugandan companies had secured contracts worth US$2.27 billion of the US$7 billion spent so far.

Musenero said more than 14,000 Ugandans had been trained and certified, while the sector had generated an estimated 39,000 indirect jobs and 113,000 induced jobs.

Nabbanja credited the oil programme with driving a wave of development in the Bunyoro sub-region, including the construction of Kabalega International Airport, Kabalega Industrial Park, more than 500 kilometres of tarmac roads and upgraded hospitals.

She described the occasion as the President checking on “the work you started 40 years ago”, referring to Museveni’s decision after taking power in 1986 to send young Ugandans abroad to train as petroleum experts.

The projects have faced sustained opposition from environmental groups over concerns about risks to biodiversity and water resources, as well as emissions associated with opening a new oil frontier. Thousands of households have also been resettled along the project route.

The developers say affected people have been compensated and rehoused and that the projects meet international standards.

Musenero said the Pearl Sweet name also represented a commitment to manage Uganda’s petroleum resources responsibly and with care for the environment.

The naming of Pearl Sweet is among the final steps before Uganda becomes a commercial oil exporter, nearly two decades after commercial oil reserves were confirmed in the Albertine Graben.

https://thecooperator.news/bunyoro-leaders-furious-over-limited-oil-benefits-for-local-communities/

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