The World Conservation Society (WCS) is tracking elephants in the Murchison Falls Park to find out if reports about a surge in elephant crop raids in areas neighboring them are true.
” The oil drilling in the Albertine region is forcing elephants to change their migration routes.” The African Institute For Energy Governance (AFEIGO) has written to the President of Uganda, claiming.
“Simon Takozekibi Nampindo, a conservationist with is World Conservation Society (WCS) did not link the elephant movement to oil developments” he said on Uganda Radio Network.
Nampindo, also WCS Uganda Program Country Director said that that is what they are trying to study. That is why they put collars so that they can monitor their movement. Know where they are ranging, do they come back, do they stay in those places, and what is stopping them from continuing.
“The type of rig deployed in the Murchison was designed to ensure that noise from it does not disturb the wildlife including the elephant.” TotalEnergies last year said.
However, the allegations linking elephant crop raids to the drilling of oil the Murchison keep on emerging including in the statement that AFEIGO and other civil society actors wrote to the President.
From putting up another oil drilling rig in the Murchison Fall National Park, the African Institute For Energy Governance now wants President Museveni to stop Total Energies.
The Energy activist group, which has been fighting for land rights and environmental concerns in the oil-rich Albertine says together with other groups, wrote to the President urging against the deployment of a second rig in the park. Uganda Radio Network has not seen the said letter.
Oil drilling in the park is having catastrophic impacts on especially elephants, which are sensitive to vibrations from the rig. The elephants are increasingly moving away from the park and into communities where they have caused deaths and immense loss of crops.
In July 2023, TotalEnergies E&P Uganda (TEPU) began drilling in the Murchison Fall National Park when it deployed the SINOPEC 1503 rig, – a state-of-the-art automated rig known as the “walking rig” Total Energies planned to drill 426 wells which included include (200 water injector wells and 196 oil producer wells on 31 well-pads located in Nwoya and Buliisa districts.
“It was abandoning drilling some of the well pads in the Murchison to avoid the environmental footprint. Bob Felix Ociti, the Manager in charge of Operations and Compliance at Petroleum Authority (PAU), confirmed this information in July 2023.” At the time, TotalEnergies said
TotalEnergies Tielnga project consists of nine (9) Onshore fields 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). James Berya Opio, the Upstream Project Coordinator, Tilenga Project last month told the Second Annual Joint CSO Conference on oil and gas that the three rigs mobilized for the drilling operations had completed drilling 47 wells.
