Museveni Scoffs at wrongly-placed oil criticism from European Union MPs
Early this month, the EU Parliament passed a resolution that undermines Uganda’s programs of extracting her 1.7bn barrels of recovery oil in Hoima.
President Yoweri Museveni has maintained that Uganda will proceed with oil exploration plans despite the wrongly-placed criticism from European Union (EU) MPs. The president was addressing the 7th Annual Uganda International Oil & Gas Summit (UlOGS) at Serena Hotel in Kampala.
“Some of these EU MPs are insufferable and so wrong that they think they know everything but should calm down. This is the wrong battleground for them. I hope our partners join us firmly and advise them. For us, we’re moving forward with our program.
“The European Parliament has got enough work to do in its own place. I would advise the MPs there to spend a bit more time doing that. East Africa has got more capable people who know what to do.
Early this month, the EU Parliament passed a resolution that undermines Uganda’s programs of extracting her 1.7bn barrels of recovery oil in Hoima. Upon extraction, Uganda plans to build a refinery and an export pipeline through Tanzania to export crude.
These plans, the EU says pose a risk to the environment and human rights abuses through displacements of people and land grabbing. The EU assumptions came at a time of heightened decampaigning of fossil fuels amid energy transition talks.
This is not the first time the president is reacting to the EU parliament decision. On September 16, 2022, the president said: “We should remember that Total Energies convinced me about the Pipeline idea; if they choose to listen to the EU Parliament, we shall find someone else to work with. Either way, we shall have our oil coming out by 2025 as planned. So, the people of Uganda should not worry,”
In a message directed to TotalEnergies, the oil major spearheading lead investors in the country’s oil sector, the president warned he can find other partner should they listen to the EU Parliament.
“We should remember that TotalEnergies convinced me about the Pipeline idea; if they choose to listen to the EU Parliament, we shall find someone else to work with,” the president said.
The deputy speaker Thomas Tayebwa issued a statement in which he described the resolution by the EU parliament as “based on misinformation and deliberate misrepresentation’ and represents “the highest level of neo-colonialism and imperialism.”
