Tullow Oil has Uganda’s interests at heart
I write in reference to recent newspaper articles concerning a report on the Ugandan oil industry prepared by Platform, a UK-based activist group.
I write in reference to recent newspaper articles concerning a report on the Ugandan oil industry prepared by Platform, a UK-based activist group.
The articles repeat the erroneous assumptions and allegations made by the Platform report with regard to Tullow Oil’s agreements and operations in Uganda.
It is only fair to provide your readers with the correct information, thereby allowing them to form their own opinion about the oil industry in Uganda.
Tullow’s agreements with the Government are in line with the Production Sharing Agreements signed all over the world.
Ugandans will certainly be the main beneficiary of revenues from oil production in Uganda when it begins. In the meantime, Tullow and its partners alone have been and will continue taking on the immense financial capital risk of developing the Lake Albert basin.
The agreements do have confidentiality clauses, but this is for understandable commercial reasons, and is in line with best practices in all other oil-producing countries.
The Platform report asserts a lack of concrete employment, human rights and environmental targets contained in the Production Sharing Agreements.
As a company with a growing international reputation to protect and build, Tullow lives by a code of business practice that demands the highest possible standards for the way we conduct business in all of our host countries.
Furthermore, as a publicly listed company, Tullow is subject to severe and rigorous scrutiny from a range of international stakeholders including investors, media, governments and regulators.
Irrespective of what the authors of the Platform report think, being a responsible company, a safe operator and a good neighbour has always been the way Tullow does business.
This commitment extends to transparency in all our dealings, and we respect the right of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), especially local Ugandan ones to examine and report on our operations. Tullow also values the opportunity of engaging the NGOs to find ways the company can ensure that the natural resources of Uganda result in shared national wealth.
If Platform’s agenda is anti-business as it appears in the articles, then it will only be satisfied when Tullow and other oil companies leave Uganda. But this would deprive Ugandans of the chance to benefit from their oil revenues.
The writer is the managing director of Tullow Oil
The articles repeat the erroneous assumptions and allegations made by the Platform report with regard to Tullow Oil’s agreements and operations in Uganda.
It is only fair to provide your readers with the correct information, thereby allowing them to form their own opinion about the oil industry in Uganda.
Tullow’s agreements with the Government are in line with the Production Sharing Agreements signed all over the world.
Ugandans will certainly be the main beneficiary of revenues from oil production in Uganda when it begins. In the meantime, Tullow and its partners alone have been and will continue taking on the immense financial capital risk of developing the Lake Albert basin.
The agreements do have confidentiality clauses, but this is for understandable commercial reasons, and is in line with best practices in all other oil-producing countries.
The Platform report asserts a lack of concrete employment, human rights and environmental targets contained in the Production Sharing Agreements.
As a company with a growing international reputation to protect and build, Tullow lives by a code of business practice that demands the highest possible standards for the way we conduct business in all of our host countries.
Furthermore, as a publicly listed company, Tullow is subject to severe and rigorous scrutiny from a range of international stakeholders including investors, media, governments and regulators.
Irrespective of what the authors of the Platform report think, being a responsible company, a safe operator and a good neighbour has always been the way Tullow does business.
This commitment extends to transparency in all our dealings, and we respect the right of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), especially local Ugandan ones to examine and report on our operations. Tullow also values the opportunity of engaging the NGOs to find ways the company can ensure that the natural resources of Uganda result in shared national wealth.
If Platform’s agenda is anti-business as it appears in the articles, then it will only be satisfied when Tullow and other oil companies leave Uganda. But this would deprive Ugandans of the chance to benefit from their oil revenues.
The writer is the managing director of Tullow Oil