Key gaps in the national environment regulations

Nov 23, 2014

Uganda since 2005 has discovered huge oil reserves in the Albertine graben amounting to more than 3.5 billion barrels of oil.

 

trueBy Bwengye Rajab Yusuf

Uganda since 2005 has discovered huge oil reserves in the Albertine graben amounting to more than 3.5 billion barrels of oil and is currently in the process of putting in place oil and gas/petroleum waste management regulations 2014. These are in line with the National Environment Act (NEA).

Petroleum or oil and gas wastes that will be covered under these provisions are those wastes that arise out of or incidental to the drilling for, development or producing of oil or gas, including waste arising out of or incidental to activities associated with the storage, handling, reclamation, gathering, transportation, or distribution of oil or gas.

It includes, but is not limited to, saltwater, other mineralised water, sludge, spent drilling fluids, cuttings, waste oil, spent completion fluids and other liquid, semi-liquid, or solid waste material.

Once the process is done, these regulations will apply to;

a) All categories of hazardous and non hazardous waste related to oil and gas exploration, extraction, refinery, transportation and other related matters;

b) All torage and disposal of waste in (a) and its movement in or out of Uganda; and

c) All oil and gas disposal facilities, landfills, sanitary fills and incinerators.

A critical look at the current drafts of these regulations reveals the following gaps;

Under the structure of the regulations, scope is unclear as to applicability to midstream petroleum operations. It seems to be incorporated in the document by the definition but the material content mainly addresses upstream issues and lacks a sharp focus on Petroleum middle stream issues i.e, refining, gas processing and conversion transportation and Storage.

There is also a need for harmonisation of scope in relation to NEA and the Petroleum Acts. Example: the Petroleum Acts explicitly states that petroleum licensees shall contract waste handling to third parties. Responsibilities in relation to this requirement are not properly reflected in these regulations.

Again, Licenses for waste is not included in these regulations and this poses a serious question as to “what is the relation to the licensing system in the general waste management regulations?

Hazardous waste refers to the definition included in the waste regulations with reference to several schedules. It is important to make a thorough check, if the definition of petroleum specific hazardous waste has been included in these schedules.

In the use of terminologies throughout the different pages/sections of these regulations, sector specific regulations should apply the same terms as in other sector-specific legislations. Example: terms like "extraction" and "oil and gas" when the upstream Act defines terms like "production" and "petroleum".

Regulation 2(b) describes "movement in and out of Uganda" while NEA says “export and import". Uniformity improves clarity, minimises confusions and mis interpretations.

Content wise, regulation of licensing procedure, license rights and obligations, conditions, etc are absent. These should be included or reference should be made to waste management regulations.

Lastly, the timing of these regulations has a problem. Since oil exploration began in 2005, there has been a series of dangerous oil waste that has been generated at oil drilling sites located in fragile ecosystems of Kabwoya and Bugungu wildlife reserves, Muchison Falls National Park and other parts of the oil rift for the past six to nine years. Infact some oil wells such as Kingfisher, and the recently abandoned Ngasa are sunk deep into Lake Albert or on shore. This means there has been zero oil waste regulations to monitor these oil operations and this creates a serious accountability dilemma.

The writer is the oil governance manager at the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) –Friends of the Earth/Oil Watch Uganda

Email:rajab.oilwatch@gmail.com

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