- The Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) reports that the Tilenga Project oil drilling project, spanning both sides of the Nile in Nwoya and Buliisa Districts, is gaining traction.
- Land acquisition for the 2,901-acre site is nearly complete with 100% of affected individuals relocated and compensated.
- 64 of 426 planned wells have been drilled , with successful hydrocarbon findings in targeted reservoirs.
- Plans for Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) Facility have also been submitted to the government for approval.
The Tilenga project is operated by TotalEnergies Exploration, and Production (TEPU) on behalf of the Joint Venture Partners (JVPs) comprising of: TEPU with the majority participating interest of 56.67%, the China National Offshore Oil Company (CUL) with 28.33%, and the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) with 15%. The project includes putting in place facilities to support the production of petroleum from six (6) oilfields located in Buliisa and Nwoya districts. The project forms part of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project.
The Tilenga project is one of the two (2) flagship Upstream Petroleum Production projects in the country. The project consists of nine (9) Onshore oilfields with one (1) field in the Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP) – North of River Nile, and eight (8) fields in the South of the Nile (outside the park).
An elderly PAP in front of the Resettlement house in Buliisa (Inset: the house that was affected by the Tilenga project). Image credit: PAU
The development of Tilenga project is planned to be undertaken through Onshore drilling of four hundred, and twenty-six (426) wells from thirty-one (31) well pads, with three (3) drilling rigs, for approximately,4.6 years. The project is projected to produce 190,000 bopd of oil at peak, which will be processed and cleaned up at the Central Processing Facilities (CPF) located in the Industrial Area. The CPF consists of a series of tanks and piping systems through which the produced oil and the associated gas will be processed to remove any unwanted mixtures such as water and sand.
The project infrastructure includes over one hundred and seventy (170) kilometres (km) of buried flowlines, and a ninety-six (96) km feeder pipeline, a Lake Water Abstraction System, and other infrastructure such as the Victoria Nile Crossing, Bugungu Airstrip, Support bases, camps, and access roads. The oil fields under the Tilenga project have a combined volume of oil in place of 5.8 billion barrels of oil (Bbbls) with recoverable resources estimated at 874mmbbls.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
