The Minister of Energy, Ms Monica Musenero and Uganda National Oil Company (Unoc) top executives left for Singapore at the weekend to publicise Uganda’s newly christened “Sweet Pearl” crude oil at the 2026 edition of the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) starting today.
The APPEC, organised by S&P Global Energy, a leading global provider of data, insights, and benchmark price assessments, is an annual convention that brings together top oil and gas industry executives, including crude oil sellers, traders, refiners, shippers, and related decision makers.
The Singaporean Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry, Ms Gan Siow Huang, will on Tuesday officially open the four-day convention where Dr Musenero and Unoc’s Chief Commercial Officer are among 148 key speakers. Knowledgeable sources told this newspaper that the timing of the conference justified the christening ceremony for Uganda’s crude oil on Wednesday last week. President Museveni presided over the christening of the crude oil “Sweet Pearl.”
The double-barreled name, oil industry executives explained, is the official trading name for the country’s crude, like other crude grades such as Brent, Bonny Light, Arab Light, Murban, among others, that will appear on “cargo documentation, refinery specifications and international trading databases.”
Officials explained earlier on Wednesday that ‘sweet’ is a petroleum cataloguing term reflecting the crude oil’s low sulphur content; medium light, with the American Petroleum Institute (API), set quality ratings, gravity in the 28-31° range, which makes it easy for refining.
‘Pearl’ is demonstrative of the “Pearl of Africa” moniker given to Uganda by Winston Churchill in his 1908 book My African Journey detailing his excursion, as undersecretary of state for the colonies, across the British Protectorates in the region.
The name Pearl Sweet was drawn from a shortlist of several names, including Pamoja Sweet, Uganda Blend, Pearl Blend, Crane Blend, among others. The choosing of the name involved technical review of the crude’s actual characteristics, stakeholder consultations between government and the oil companies—TotalEnergies EP and CNOOC, evaluation against branding/commercial/cultural criteria against industry appeal, cultural relevance, ease of pronunciation, global sensitivity, technical accuracy, to drawing a shortlist of five names, and eventual approval by President Museveni of the final name leading to last Wednesday’s ceremony. Dr Musenero, speaking at the ceremony, said, the naming of Pearl Sweet marks an important step as Uganda prepares to take its place in the international oil market.
With Pearl Sweet’s low sulphur concentration, a unique selling point, Ugandan oil executives are optimistic that the crude will attract interest across different markets whenever commercial production starts. The Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies SE, the parent company of TotalEnergies EP, speaking at the release of the company’s 2025 financial results in February, revealed that the Uganda oil project will be operational in the fourth quarter of this year — between October and December. However, some accounts indicate production could slightly move into early 2027.
The Ministry of Energy Permanent Secretary Irene Batebe, speaking last Wednesday, said the Kingfisher Development Area comprising four well pads and 31 development wells, operated by CNOOC, had reached 99.38 percent by the end of July. The production area will produce 40,000 barrels of oil per day at peak production.
“The focus is now shifting from construction to completion, testing, commissioning and operational readiness,” Ms Batebe said.
At the Tilenga development project, covering six oil fields and is designed to develop approximately 420 wells, straddling the districts of Nwoya and Buliia, Ms Batebe said more than 210 wells had been drilled by the end of July, exceeding the minimum requirement for First Oil.
Both Kingfisher and Tilenga projects will produce 230,000 barrels of oil per day at peak production. The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop), which will transport the Pearl Sweet crude from mid-western Uganda to Tanga Port in Tanzania, according to Eacop Ltd, the project developer, was at 92 percent by the end of August, with more than 1,200 kilometres of cumulative welding completed.
“The remaining work requires close coordination across the upstream projects, feeder pipelines, pumping stations, storage facilities, marine infrastructure and export terminal. The successful completion and operation of Eacop will give Uganda the infrastructure required to access international markets and monetise its petroleum resources,” Ms Batebe revealed.
Development of the Kingfisher and Tilenga fields, and Eacop is tagged to a cost of $10b (Shs37trillion), of which, according to the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), the regulator, $2.27b (Shs8.5trillion) in subcontracts has gone to Ugandan companies.
PAU also says that the ongoing construction and development phase has generated approximately 39,000 indirect jobs and 113,000 induced jobs across the wider economy, while more than 14,000 Ugandans have been trained and certified in oil-and-gas-related disciplines.
“As construction activities decline, we must ensure that Ugandan companies and professionals remain part of the industry through operations, maintenance, engineering, manufacturing, logistics and downstream activities. This is why national content, skills development, technology transfer and workforce localisation will remain priorities,” Ms Batebe said.
Already, the Eacop Ltd executives had planned a mass termination of hundreds of employees without benefits, both in Uganda and Tanzania, starting next month, as the oil pipeline nears completion. The process was paused, for now, by the Eacop Ltd board led by the Unoc Chief Executive Officer, Ms Proscovia Nabbanja, following an exposé by this newspaper in early June.
Construction of the pipeline generated some 11,000 jobs in Tanzania, and 4,000 jobs in Uganda.
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