Summary

The Kingfisher oil field project is part of a roughly $15 billion oil development program in Uganda that also includes the larger Tilenga project and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). Referred to officially as the Kingfisher Development Area (KFDA) project, Kingfisher sits in the Buhuka Flats on the southeastern shore of Lake Albert and is expected to produce around 40,000 barrels of oil per day once fully operational. Exploration in the area dates to 2009, but the project has become especially controversial after China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), a minority stakeholder took over as operator in 2012-2013. Local communities have reported forced evictions, coerced land sales, destroyed or confiscated fishing boats, arrests and beatings, and sexual violence, much of it attributed to the military and police units stationed to protect the project. Workers and former CNOOC subcontractor employees have also alleged unsafe conditions, unpaid wages, and illegal orders to dump waste.

Location: Buhuka Flats on the southeastern shore of Lake Albert, Kikuube District, Uganda.

Companies: Kingfisher and the larger Tilenga project are jointly owned by TotalEnergies EP Uganda (56.67%), CNOOC (28.33%), and the Ugandan National Oil Company (15%). TotalEnergies and CNOOC bought their stakes from the previous owner, Tullow Oil, around 2011-2012. CNOOC paid $1.467 billion for the Kingfisher oil block and became the primary operator for it.

Investors and financiers: The financing of the Kingfisher project is unknown, though it was variously reported in 2013 that CNOOC was set to invest $ 2 billion into the project, or that the contract for its work was worth $2 billion. It is not clear whether this refers to the Tullow-CNOOC agreement or represents a separate investment.

Project impacts and concerns

• Forced evictions

Residents of villages in the Buhuka Flats, including Kyabasambu, Kiina, Nsunzu A and B, and others, describe being ordered out of their homes by army and police forces, sometimes with only hours' notice, after which their houses were emptied or demolished, and livestock and belongings went missing. An investigation by Climate Rights International documented dozens of such accounts, including satellite imagery showing that entire villages had been emptied and demolished between 2019 and 2024. Others who resisted signing compensation agreements said CNOOC agents, at times accompanied by soldiers, threatened that their land would be "taken freely" if they refused. Cash amounts offered were far below what was needed to buy replacement land.

CNOOC has been helped by a ‘Buhuka Communal Land Association’ (BUCOLA), which despite its name seems to operate solely as a local vehicle for CNOOC to acquire title to previously communally owned lands, pay compensation when it does at all, and to absorb complaints about the process. BUCOLA has allegedly provided little to no compensation to existing residents on such lands and even charged fees for ‘helping’ to move families to new plots of land.

• Violence and intimidation by military and police forces

Since CNOOC's arrival, the Ugandan government has stationed large numbers of military and police units around Kingfisher, ostensibly to protect the sites. However, residents describe a pervasive climate of fear, and environmental defenders who have tried to document or protest the project's impacts have faced arrests, threats, and in at least one case torture: in June 2024, local activist Stephen Kwikiriza was abducted in Kampala, held for five days, and beaten before being released. Both Total Energies and CNOOC continually refer to their grievance mechanisms in response to reports of such incidents, but villagers have alleged up to the present year that such mechanisms have not been useful, and similar behaviour continues.

Multiple women interviewed by researchers said army soldiers threatened them with arrest or confiscation of their fish and property unless they agreed to have sex with them, and that some felt they had no choice but to comply for the sake of their livelihoods. Others described demands for sex from oil-company community liaison officers and subcontractor managers in exchange for jobs, and reported that those women who refused advances from superiors risked being fired.

• Loss of fishing and farming livelihoods

Fishing is the primary livelihood in the Buhuka Flats. UPDF's marine and fisheries units have seized or burned hundreds of boats and fishing equipment, arrested fisherfolk and demanded bribes for their release, and blocked access to parts of the lake, all of which many believe is intended to push people out of the area entirely. Reported incidents include the burning of roughly 300 boats in a single 2022 episode and further burnings and arrests in 2023 and 2024. Families who lost their boats describe going from three meals a day to one or none, and being unable to pay school fees.

Farmers have also described damages, such as losing livestock during chaotic evictions and not being able to recover them, as well as the general loss of grazing lands due to the land being taken for Kingfisher.

• Environmental harms

Fisherfolk and former CNOOC subcontractor workers report that oil spills regularly occur and enter surrounding lands and water. This has resulted in fish die-offs and a sharp decline in catches near the project site. Two former employees of CNOOC's drilling contractor alleged that a supervisor directed them to pump contaminated water containing oil and drilling chemicals directly into Lake Albert at night rather than have it properly collected and disposed of, in violation of both Ugandan waste-handling law and CNOOC's own environmental commitments.

• Worker safety and labour rights

Workers employed by CNOOC's subcontractors describe an atmosphere of regular violations of labour rights. Workers report workdays exceeding ten hours, seven days a week. Wages have been unpaid or partially paid through informal means, which is aligned with a lack of signed contracts. Injuries are a regular occurrence due to inadequate safety equipment and treatment is inconsistent, with some workers having had to pay themselves for workplace injuries.

In October 2023, a security guard was struck and killed by a truck at a contractor's camp gate. Besides this, other workers report that several incidents involving work trucks have resulted in several deaths of motorcycle taxi drivers.

Last update: 2026-09-04

Business & Human Rights Centre reached out to key investors and operators of the Kingfisher project regarding concerns raised by CSOs in March and May 2024, June 2025 and June 2026. Only TotalEnergies responded. CNOOC and others never responded. In its latest response in July 2026, TotalEnergies stated that "as a business partner and in line with TotalEnergies Code of Conduct in this regard, TEPU engages with CNOOC on various matters including by sharing its experience in the field of social impact management and human rights, including, for example, investigations led in cooperation with the operator" and "based on the investigations TEPU has carried out in coordination with the operator CNOOC, the concerns...regarding ‘fishermen communities’, displacement of populations, land acquisition, and the involvement of the ‘Uganda People’s Defence Forces’, appear to be unrelated to the operations of the Kingfisher project."