The Analysis of Uganda’s Oil and Gas Laws Towards the Protection of Land Rights in the Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

The oil and gas sector in Uganda has been at the fore front of development in the last past decade since the commercial oil discovery in 2006 in the Albertine Graben. The need for development of the oil and gas industry has since come up with a vast number of projects and exploratory infrastructural developments that are ongoing around the areas of operations. These include among others, road constructions, oil fields development, construction of the oil refinery, acquisition of land for waste management, construction of an international airport in Hoima, the setting up of technical camps around the oil and gas operational areas, the suggested pipeline project between the government of Uganda and with the government of Tanzania. Such development requires large capital, technical expertise, and big chunks of land. Thus, they have an adverse impact on the environment and the people. Land is increasingly being seen as a commodity and as a result its demand is on the increase. Speculators have rushed to acquire big chunks of land in the areas of Hoima, Buliisa, Kibaale which form part of the Albertine Graben and as a result the indigenous people are displaced. It is therefore important to study whether land rights of those indigenous land owners in those areas are protected. The need to pave way for oil exploration and exploitation as well as speculative investment has created a challenge as regards protection of property/ land rights of the indigenous people living in the districts within the Albertine. In addition to the Land laws in Uganda that seek to protect land rights, more Acts, policies and Regulations have been put in place to regulate the operations of the industry to mitigate the direct and indirect impact of Oil and gas activities of the surrounding community and the environment. These include but not limited to the national Oil and gas policy 2008, the petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Act of 2013, the Petroleum (Refining, Conversion, Transmission and Midstream Storage) Act 2013. Despite that, there is still an outcry of violation of land rights as a result of massive evictions, land grabbing, under or delayed compensation. It is important for the oil and gas regulations to consider environmental issues in development. In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection should be an integral part of the development process. The oil and gas laws in trying to harmonize economic development with land rights protection, they must minimize the potential environmental risks because they directly and indirectly affect host communities. This research therefore critically analyses the existing Oil and Gas and related laws, and study the extent to which they protect land rights. The study shall look at both the National and International law, identify challenges and give recommendations.