CSO communique on Tullow-Total sale in Lake Albert oil project 27-04-2020

Monday, April 27th, 2020

CSO communique on Tullow-Total sale in Lake Albert oil project 27-04-2020

Communique issued by 23 Ugandan civil society organisations (CSOs) following last week’s news in which Total revealed that negotiations to buy Tullow’s entire assets in the Lake Albert oil project have been concluded.

Total will buy Tullow’s assets in the aforementioned project at $575 million. The sale will fetch Uganda $14.6 million in taxes. This is a decline of $152.4 million from the tax of $167 million that had been assessed by Uganda’s government in the sale between Tullow, Total and CNOOC that should have been concluded last year.

Through the attached communique,the CSOs call for the following among others:
That the Ministry of Energy, parliament and Ugandans should not accept a sale in which they are losing taxes;
That government should wait until the oil prices are conducive and the Coronavirus pandemic is over before approving any sales;
That transparency must be promoted to avoid bad deals;
That government must wait until the court cases against Total are concluded.CSO communique on Tullow-Total sale in Lake Albert oil project 27-04-2020