Uganda Names Its Crude ‘Pearl Sweet’ as First Oil Nears
Uganda moved another step closer to becoming a commercial oil producer on Wednesday after President Yoweri Museveni officially named the country’s crude oil Pearl Sweet Petroleum at the Kingfisher Development Area in Kikuube District.
The name combined Uganda’s long-standing identity as the “Pearl of Africa” with the crude’s relatively low sulphur content. In industry terms, the “sweet” classification points to crude that generally requires less sulphur removal during refining.
The announcement gave Uganda’s crude a commercial identity as the country prepared to enter the international oil market. Pearl Sweet will be produced from the Kingfisher and Tilenga developments in the Lake Albert basin and marketed for export through the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
The milestone came as the country’s oil infrastructure moved into the final stages of development. As of June, Kingfisher was 79% complete, while Tilenga stood at 74%. EACOP had reached about 90% completion, with more than 1,443 kilometres of pipeline welded across Uganda and Tanzania.
By August, EACOP had advanced to 91% completion. The 1,443-kilometre pipeline was being built as a buried, insulated and electrically heated system because Uganda’s waxy crude has a high pour point and needs to remain heated during transportation. The line will connect the oilfields in western Uganda to the export terminal at Tanga, Tanzania.
The two upstream projects were expected to deliver combined peak production of approximately 230,000 barrels per day. Kingfisher, operated by CNOOC Uganda, was designed for a peak capacity of about 42,000 barrels per day, while TotalEnergies’ Tilenga project was designed for approximately 204,000 barrels per day.
Uganda discovered commercial quantities of oil in the Albertine Graben in 2006, beginning a two-decade transition from exploration towards production. The sector received its final investment decision in 2022, unlocking billions of dollars in upstream and export infrastructure investment.
The latest government and industry updates indicated that first oil remained targeted for before the end of 2026, although the schedule had previously faced several delays.
For Uganda’s petroleum industry, the unveiling of Pearl Sweet therefore represented more than a branding exercise. It signalled that a resource discovered 20 years ago was moving closer to becoming a traded commodity with production, transportation and export infrastructure increasingly aligned for first oil.
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