Waiting for Uganda’s first commercial ‘Pearl Sweet’ oil: Discourses on social and environmental impacts and safeguards

Abstract

Uganda discovered approximately 3.5 billion barrels of commercially recoverable oil reserves in 2006 and is poised to become a major oil producer in Sub-Saharan Africa. In assessing progress towards full–scale oil production, expected by the end of 2026, Uganda’s President referred to the country’s commercial crude oil as “pearl sweet”, highlighting its medium-to-heavy, highly waxy characteristics, relatively low sulphur content, and ease of refining. Despite the anticipated economic benefits, considerable debate persists regarding the potential social and environmental impacts of oil development and the adequacy of safeguards ahead of full–scale production. Drawing on experiences from established oil–producing countries, this paper examines how environmental and social impacts are framed, how safeguards are prioritised, and what this implies for Uganda’s emerging oil sector. Anchored in environmental justice and political ecology, the study adopts a sequential integrative design combining a systematic literature review with empirical insights from twelve purposively selected stakeholders in Uganda’s oil-producing districts and national regulatory institutions. The literature review used Boolean search strings that connected terms within conceptual blocks using OR and combined blocks using AND, following a PRISMA-guided process across Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar and institutional data bases. Of 1800 records identified, 95 key sources were retained for analysis. The findings indicate that, although Uganda has initiated several safeguards measures including oil–spill preparedness training, buffer zone enforcement, afforestation, and resettlement programs – implementation remain fragmented, under–resourced, and heavily centralised. Comparative analysis further indicates limited integration of international climate frameworks, including the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, into national oil governance. We argue that Uganda’s challenge is not simply the absence of safeguards, but the persistence of centralised, uneven, and under–resourced governance arrangements that constrain the translation of international safeguard commitments into effective national practice. This study contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land), while also intersecting with SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).