Ineke Steinhauer
Technical secretary
The Kingfisher oil development project at the borders of Lake Albert, Uganda, consists of oil production facilities, supporting infrastructure and a feeder pipeline to a planned refinery and oil export pipeline. For this project an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) has been submitted to the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA). NEMA requested NCEAs support in reviewing this ESIA. The review took place in a workshop setting in Hoima from 24-28 February 2019 (including a 1-day field visit), where (apart from NEMA) representatives of various lead agencies participated, as well as from the Norwegian Environment Agency.
Significant details
The Kingfisher ESIA report contains a lot of relevant information and is in general of good quality. But on a number of key issues, more specific information needs to be provided to enable well-informed decision making and a controlled and responsible project. These shortcomings are related to:
- alternatives for some of the project infrastructure (e.g. well pads and river crossings)
- ways to deal with noise, waste water and (hazardous) drilling waste
- biodiversity impacts, such as vulnerable species and habitats, Bugoma forest and Lake Albert
- social impacts, related to autonomous and project related population increase
- Environmental and Social management plans (not suficiently detailed yet)
- Unplanned events and emergency response
- CO2 and energy footprint