Waste Management in Oil And Gas Industry;

Abstract

Although waste management is permitted by the National Environmental Authority as a transporter of oil and gas waste and indeed does poses a radioactive materials handling license issued by the Atomic energy council of Uganda, questions have been asked as to whether oil and gas waste can indeed be managed in an eco-friendly way and whether the Ugandan laws do indeed make viable and enforceable provision to be able to handle oil and gas waste management. This research analyzed the background of the study and the details of how Uganda’s oil industry is managing the waste from oil and gas industry. This was done by analyzing the historical details of how and what is affecting the recently describe biggest onshore discovery in 20years oil and gas sector. Uganda is soon joining the international oil producing community, with reserves going up to 3.5 billion barrels. However if not well planned and managed Uganda may just like other African countries to suffer from the oil curse which shall not only manifest through environmental health and safety degeneration but also economic retrogression as a result of waste management challenges. The legal policies in Uganda together with the different stake holders have embarked on how to promote environmentally sound oil activities in ensuring proper waste management in the industry. The research appraise the laws, analyse, address challenges with proper comparison of the situation with some other countries like Norway, Sweden and other African countries like Ghana with proper recommendation on how waste management can be managed in a oil and gas industry. It is clear that Uganda is not yet fully prepared to effectively manage EIAs in the Oil and Gas sector. Although the legal framework is generally in place, some supporting legislation to enable effective operationalization is lacking. Other constraints include inadequate finances, and knowledge gaps on the part of Practitioners and Lead Agencies. The researcher used quantitative and doctrinal legal research with different literature to acquire this information that made the finding comparative with the different oil producing countries. Finally, NEMA should expedite formulation of adequate regulations and guidelines to operationalize the framework environmental laws; prioritize EIAs and monitor the most riskiest; and give regular and timely feedback report to developers and these recommendations can be implemented without extra funding.