Uganda has named its crude oil Pearl Sweet, giving the grade a commercial identity so it can be priced, marketed and sold to international refiners as the country moves to within weeks of its first oil.
President Yoweri Museveni unveiled the name on Wednesday at the Kingfisher oilfield on Lake Albert, operated by China’s CNOOC, one of two upstream projects that will supply the grade. He signed the name at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Energy Minister Dr Monica Musenero and the energy ministry’s permanent secretary, Irene Batebe.
A crude grade cannot be quoted on trading screens or sold to refineries until it carries a name and a published assay setting out its density, sulphur content and refining yield. Musenero said the name carried meaning: “sweet” reflects the crude’s very low sulphur content, which makes it cheaper to refine, while “Pearl” ties the oil to Uganda, long branded the Pearl of Africa. UNOC, the state oil company, will market the grade on the government’s behalf alongside the global trading house Vitol.
Museveni said he had initially opposed the pipeline that will carry the crude for export, questioning why Uganda would ship out a resource its own economy could use. “Even this pipeline, I did not support it initially,” he told the gathering, saying he had relented only on condition that a domestic refinery took first call on the oil. “You can export some of the crude, but the refinery must get priority.”
That insistence, he argued, was commercial as much as political. Refining at home would avoid a pipeline transit fee that officials put at $12.77 a barrel to move crude to the Tanzanian coast, and would cut into an annual petroleum import bill of about $2bn. “We shall no longer spend $2bn a year importing petroleum,” he said. “We shall buy our own.”
On the wider windfall, the President set out a doctrine of “using the exhaustible to create durable capacity”, urging that oil earnings be channelled into power stations, railways and other lasting infrastructure rather than consumption. “Please don’t expect to import more perfumes, and more wines, and more cars,” he said. “The money will be to do durable things … for the grandchildren.”
The government retains between 65% and 80% of upstream revenue under its production-sharing agreements and expects the fields to earn about $2bn a year at peak. Joint-venture partners have committed about $15bn to the fields and pipeline since a 2022 final investment decision, of which roughly $7bn has been spent so far, including about $2.4bn on the Kingfisher facility.
Museveni also pointed to revenue from gas that would once have been flared. Associated gas separated at Kingfisher will instead generate about 80 megawatts of electricity — which he likened to half the output of the old Nalubaale hydropower station — and feed a plant producing liquefied petroleum gas for cooking. He put the combined earnings at about $100m a year, some $30m from power and $70m from LPG, alongside lower carbon emissions.
Pearl Sweet will be produced from two fields with identical ownership: TotalEnergies holds 56.67%, CNOOC 28.33% and UNOC 15%, though CNOOC operates Kingfisher and TotalEnergies the larger Tilenga project. Kingfisher is expected to contribute about 40,000 barrels a day at peak and Tilenga, roughly four times its size, about 190,000, for a combined 230,000 barrels a day.
Batebe said Kingfisher was about 80% complete, with first-oil readiness at 98% and commissioning tests underway ahead of first oil she expected by the end of September. Its central processing facility, which Museveni toured before the naming, has reached mechanical completion and is built to handle 40,000 barrels a day; the tour took in the plant’s crude oil, water-separation and LPG units. At Tilenga, more than 210 wells had been drilled by July, past the minimum needed for first oil, while work continues on its processing facility.
The crude is waxy and low in sulphur and solidifies at normal temperatures, so it must be kept hot. It will travel to the Tanzanian port of Tanga through the 1,443km East African Crude Oil Pipeline, heated along its full length and now 92.7% complete, according to Batebe. A separate feeder line of about 47.5km links Kingfisher to the shared facilities at Kabaale in Hoima, where the crude joins the main pipeline.
The government is also advancing a refinery designed to process 60,000 barrels a day, expandable to 120,000, with UNOC taking a 40% stake and a final investment decision expected in February 2027. Museveni and Musenero both cast the refinery as central to keeping value in the country rather than exporting raw crude.
The Lake Albert basin holds an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of oil, of which up to 1.7 billion are recoverable, according to UNOC. Museveni said Kingfisher and Tilenga together tapped only about 40% of the basin, and Batebe said exploration would extend into the Kadam, Moroto, Lake Kyoga and Hoima basins, with a third licensing round planned this year. Uganda joins other recent African entrants in branding its crude: Ghana markets its oil as Jubilee, and Senegal began exporting its Sangomar grade in 2024.
Batebe said more than 18,000 people were employed in the sector, 91% of them Ugandan and more than 5,000 drawn from host communities, with Ugandans holding most management, technical and support roles. Ugandan firms had won $2.27bn of the $7bn spent so far. Musenero said more than 14,000 Ugandans had been trained and certified, and that the sector had generated an estimated 39,000 indirect and 113,000 induced jobs.
Nabbanja credited the oil programme with a wave of development in the Bunyoro sub-region, including Kabalega International Airport, the Kabalega Industrial Park, more than 500 kilometres of tarmac roads and upgraded hospitals. She described the occasion as the President checking on “the work you started 40 years ago”, a reference to his decision after taking power in 1986 to send young Ugandans abroad to train as petroleum experts.
The projects have faced sustained opposition from environmental groups over the risk to biodiversity and water resources and the emissions from opening a new oil frontier, and thousands of households have been resettled along the route. The developers say those affected have been compensated and rehoused and that the projects meet international standards. Musenero said the Pearl Sweet name was also a pledge to manage the resource with care for the environment.
The naming is among the final steps before Uganda becomes a commercial oil exporter, almost two decades after commercial reserves were confirmed in the Albertine Graben.
In his remarks, CNOOC Uganda Limited President Mr Liu Xiangdong said that the Kingfisher Oil Field has established a production capacity of approximately 20,000 barrels of oil per day, with output expected to reach 40,000 barrels per day by February 2027, CNOOC Uganda Limited President Mr Liu Xiangdong has said.
Liu said the Central Processing Facility (CPF) achieved mechanical completion on August 31, marking a major milestone towards the start of oil production. “This means that the major construction, installation and pre-commissioning works have substantially been completed, bringing us much closer to production,” he said.
He added that CNOOC Uganda has drilled 22 of the planned 31 wells, with some reaching depths of more than seven kilometres below the ground. “Our focus now is to ensure that the wells deliver safely and efficiently into the Central Processing Facility, where the crude will be treated and prepared for transportation,” he said. The processed crude will then be transported through a 47-kilometre feeder pipeline to EACOP Pump Station One for onward transportation.
Beyond oil production, Liu said the Kingfisher project is also focused on building Ugandan capacity and creating opportunities for local businesses. Through a partnership with the Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba, CNOOC Uganda is supporting the establishment of a Centre of Excellence equipped with an IT centre, a real drilling rig for training and internationally recognised certification courses. “These initiatives are designed to bridge the gap between classroom learning and industry practice, equipping Ugandan students and professionals with the practical skills, knowledge and competencies they need to participate meaningfully in Uganda’s growing energy industry,” he said.
Liu said the project has also created opportunities for Ugandan companies in petroleum technical services, construction, transportation and logistics, while thousands of Ugandans have secured employment. He added that CNOOC Uganda is supporting agriculture in the region through demonstration farms growing hybrid rice and foxtail millet, with about 750 farmers already benefiting from training and free seeds.
The company plans to establish an Agriculture Service Centre near the Kingfisher camp to promote value addition, modern farming practices and access to markets.
On environmental sustainability, Liu said CNOOC Uganda remains committed to green development through energy efficiency, responsible waste management and environmental restoration. He said approximately 200,000 tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas produced from the Kingfisher Field will provide a cleaner source of cooking and commercial energy, while more than 1,000 trees have already been planted around the drilling camp and an additional 10,000 trees will be planted across 120 acres surrounding the field.
