Oil is a major revenue generation industry for many countries. However, the oil business is dirty as oil exploration has serious consequences for biodiversity in land and marine ecosystems. Biodiversity is the variety of all living things.

During oil exploration, there is destruction of on-site and nearby vegetation species and displacement of Local human communities. Techniques used involve utilization of anchor chains, drill cuttings and drilling fluids that harm organisms physically and directly.

In case of occurrence of oil spills, there is contamination of soil and water and possibility of fires and explosions that destroy both terrestrial and marine organisms. Contamination of water causes suffocation and poisoning of marine organisms which further causes mass deaths and subsequent endangerment of species.

The spills also make water toxic for irrigation of cultivated plant species. Studies show that oil and gas wastewater suppresses plant immune systems.

Environmental Activists in Uganda protested the $10 billion Lake Albert Development Project that involves oil exploitation on the shores of Lake Albert (Albertine region) where oil was discovered in 2009 and Pipeline construction. The final investment decision was taken in February this year.

A part of this project, Tilenga oilfield, has 10 well pads and a feeder pipeline that are found in the Murchison Falls National Park, a home to 2,700 elephants, 15,800 buffalo, 1,950 Rothschild’s giraffes and more than 150,000 kobs.

The exploration activities will make the Park a ‘Spoiled Park’: one with degraded scarred animal habitats and food sources which will lower survival rate of the flora and fauna.

Total Energies, the operator of the Tilenga project, pledges to work with consistency to their environmental commitments through strict measures to avoid, offset and mitigate the impact to the park's natural environment. 

The measures are as follows:

1 The number of well locations is limited to ten

2 Underground oil and water injection lines

3 No processing facilities and flares 

4 No night work, except drilling done in the area

5 Strict specifications applied to drilling equipment in order to limiting sound and visual impact

6 Removal of all waste for processing.

7 A Traffic management plan to limit the number of vehicles and interference with tourist activities in the Park

However, how feasible are the above measures? Furthermore, how transparent will the operations be such that accountability is achieved in a country clogged by corruption? Even with those measures, the impact of oil exploration to the sensitive environment is already immense.

This is happening at a time when monkey species are decreasing in Uganda’s Bugoma Forest Reserve as official deforestation is done for commercial Sugar plantation on forest land. 

References

Oil and petroleum products explained.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/oil-and-the-environment.php#:~:text=Exploring%20and%20drilling%20for%20oil,clearing%20an%20area%20of%20vegetation.

From the Shores of Lake Albert: How Ugandan Youth Activists are Challenging Oil Drilling

https://www.greengrants.org/2021/02/17/lake-albert/

The oil giants drilling among the giraffes in Uganda

https://www.ft.com/content/e1670042-11bd-4c68-9bde-a599d94bd8c0

Colorado State University. (2019, October 31). Oil and gas wastewater used for irrigation may suppress plant immune systems: New study gives pause to the idea of using produced water for irrigation. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 25, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191031130547.htm