Pearl Sweet: Historic milestone in Uganda's journey to middle-income status

OPINION By Amlan Tumusiime Last Wednesday, Uganda reached a defining moment in its economic transformation when President Yoweri Museveni officially unveiled Pearl Sweet as the name of Uganda's crude oil blend at the Kingfisher development area in Kikuube district. This historic event was more than symbolic. It marked Uganda's formal entry into the global oil market with a distinct identity, setting the stage for accelerated progress towards middle‑income status. Uganda's crude oil is classified as sweet crude because of its very low sulphur content. This makes it easier and cheaper to refine into clean fuels such as petrol and diesel. It also reduces environmental pollution, compared to sour crude. The branding of Uganda's oil as 'Pearl Sweet' combining its chemical purity with Uganda's famous title as the Pearl of Africa gives the country a competitive edge in international markets. It transforms Uganda's oil from a resource in the ground into a globally recognised commercial product. President Yoweri Museveni must be saluted for this noble achievement after being actively involved in Uganda's oil journey for about four decades. After coming to power in 1986, Museveni made oil sector capacity-building a priority by ensuring selected Ugandan scientists are sent abroad for training in petroleum-related fields. This group has contributed immensely towards Uganda's oil success story. This is what defines true visionary leadership. The President has personally participated in major negotiations and strategic decisions including defending the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) operations after world bodies like European Parliament criticised EACOP operations, raising concerns of human rights abuses, harming protected wildlife areas and driving climate change. Of course the European Parliament was acting on un-researched information by some civil society organisations and some unpatriotic Ugandan opposition politicians. Although the EU had called for the halting of the EACOP project activities, President Museveni, backed by the members of the East African Legislative Assembly and Ugandan Parliament, stood his ground and ensured that EACOP's 1,443km pipeline project from Lake Albert to the Tanzanian Port of Tanga is completed. Currently, the project is at 92% completion. 99.7% (3,749 out of 3,759) of Uganda's project-affected persons (PAPs) have been duly compensated. Equally, Tanzania has so far compensated 99.4% (9,863 out of 9,927) of the PAPs. The smallest percentage that is not yet compensated is largely attributed to absent landowners, family inheritance disputes and missing documentation. I am honoured to have worked closely with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and EACOP in my capacity then as resident district commissioner of Kikuube for four-and-a-half years. Experience showed me that there is a lot of misinformation propagated by some civil society organisations and opposition politicians against oil companies. They deliberately manufacture fake stories on human rights abuses, land grabbing and evictions purportedly orchestrated by the oil companies against the citizens, an allegation which is false. For example, EACOP constructs permanent replacement houses, ventilated improved pit latrines, an external kitchen, and provides 5000-litre capacity water tanks and solar panels for each homestead. EACOP also provides food support, agricultural seedlings, vocational training and financial literacy programmes to the PAPs. In the case of CNOOC, the oil company has helped the community of Buhuka on the shores of Lake Albert by processing for them a communal land title covering approximately 1,354.3ha of communal land. The land title covers five villages including Kyabasambu, Kiina, Nsunzu, Kyakapere and Nsonga. CNOOC also helped the Buhuka communal land association committee with money for the construction of a maternity ward and staff quarters at Buhuka health centre. The members, using part of the money, constructed a guest house which generates money for the Buhuka communal association and constructed public toilets in each of the five villages at Lake Albert shores. The NRM Government needs to come out and aggressively defend the oil companies from bad oil politics by the opposition. During the 2021 presidential campaigns, both opposition presidential candidates Robert Kyagulanyi and Joseph Kabuleta told lies to Ugandans that the NRM Government was silently transporting and selling Ugandan crude oil abroad. Their imaginations were based on trucks seen around the Albertine region, such as Kingfisher in Kikuube and Tilenga in Buliisa district. The trucks were carrying oil waste to safeguard the local ecosystem from contamination. They were transporting hazardous and non-hazardous oil wastes, including drilling mud, toxic cuttings, and fluid by-products, to designated treatment, recycling or disposal facilities, and because of their ignorance of oil and gas-related issues, both Bobi Wine and Kabuleeta, without research, thought that was crude oil being exported. I wrote a detailed article then in the New Vision educating both Bobi Wine and Kabuleeta on how crude oil is transported. The oil sector is already creating jobs. According to the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), 80% to 90% of the workforce in the oil and gas sector is Ugandan. With the upcoming USD 4 billion refinery in Hoima District set to process 60,000 barrels per day, thousands more jobs will be created. This directly contributes to Uganda's ambition of becoming a middle‑income economy. Local businesses are also benefiting. Over 2,160 Ugandan companies have supplied goods and services worth $2.1 billion, equivalent sh7.9 trillion in the oil sector. This integration of domestic enterprises into the oil value chain ensures that oil wealth circulates within Uganda's economy, strengthening industries and building capacity for future growth. The unveiling of Pearl Sweet is therefore a turning point. It demonstrates that Uganda is moving steadily from exploration to production, from potential to reality. Oil revenues, when strategically invested, will modernise agriculture, expand infrastructure, and finance social services the pillars of a middle‑income economy. President Museveni's long stewardship of Uganda's oil sector provides continuity and institutional memory at this critical juncture. His leadership ensures that the transition from discovery to production is managed with stability, allowing Uganda to maximise oil revenues for poverty reduction and national transformation. The branding of Pearl Sweet is not just about oil. It is about Uganda's future. It is about positioning the country as a serious player in the global economy and using its natural resources to lift millions out of poverty. With peace, stability, and strategic leadership, Uganda is poised to shine as the Pearl of Africa not only in name but in economic achievement. Congratulations, Uganda, on this historic milestone. The journey to middle‑income status has entered a new chapter. The writer is an NRM cadre