Uganda on Wednesday named its crude oil blend “Pearl Sweet,” giving the country’s petroleum a commercial identity as it moves closer to production and entry into international markets.
The name was unveiled during a ceremony at the Kingfisher Development Area in Kikuube District attended by President Museveni, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Energy Minister Dr Monica Musenero, and the energy ministry’s permanent secretary, Irene Batebe.
“Pearl” draws on Uganda’s longstanding description as the “Pearl of Africa,” while “Sweet” reflects the crude’s low sulphur content. In petroleum markets, crude is described as sweet when it contains relatively little sulphur, a characteristic that generally makes it easier and less costly to refine than high-sulphur, or sour, crude.
Uganda’s crude contains about 0.16% sulphur and ranges between 23 and 33 degrees API gravity, according to the energy ministry. It is, however, paraffinic and waxy, meaning it must be kept heated during transportation. The ministry classifies the crude as having “very low sulphur” content.
The “Pearl Sweet” brand will identify the blend of crude produced from the Kingfisher and Tilenga oilfields and transported through the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Tanga.
Energy Ministry Permanent Secretary Irene Bateebe said the naming marked a new phase in a petroleum programme built over decades of exploration, licensing, regulation, and infrastructure development.
“Today, Uganda’s oil and gas sector has entered its decisive delivery phase,” Bateebe said. “What we are celebrating today is not the end of Uganda’s petroleum journey, but the beginning of a new chapter.”
Uganda estimates its petroleum resource base at 6.5 billion barrels of oil initially in place, of which about 1.4 billion barrels are recoverable. The country also has an estimated 500 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Bateebe said those discoveries had been confirmed in less than 20% of the Albertine Graben, leaving significant potential for additional resources.
Bateebe reported that more than 18,000 people were employed in the sector, 91% of them Ugandan, with more than 5,000 drawn from host communities. Ugandans hold most management, technical, and support roles, and Ugandan firms have won $2.27 billion of the $7 billion spent so far.
Musenero said more than 14,000 Ugandans had been trained and certified, and that the sector had generated an estimated 39,000 indirect and 113,000 induced jobs.
Prime Minister Nabbanja credited the oil programme with a wave of development in the Bunyoro sub-region, including Kabalega International Airport, the Kabalega Industrial Park, more than 500 kilometres of tarmac roads, and upgraded hospitals. She described the occasion as the President checking on “the work you started 40 years ago,” a reference to his decision after taking power in 1986 to send young Ugandans abroad to train as petroleum experts.
At Kingfisher, facilities were 99.38% complete by July, while access to the required land had reached 100%, Bateebe said. Twenty-two wells had been drilled, representing 116% of the drilling required before first oil. The project is now shifting from construction to completion, testing, commissioning, and operational readiness.
Pearl Sweet will be produced from two fields with identical ownership: TotalEnergies holds 56.67%, CNOOC 28.33%, and UNOC 15%, though CNOOC operates Kingfisher and TotalEnergies the larger Tilenga project. Kingfisher is expected to contribute about 40,000 barrels a day at peak and Tilenga, roughly four times its size, about 190,000, for a combined 230,000 barrels a day.
The projects have faced sustained opposition from environmental groups over the risk to biodiversity and water resources and the emissions from opening a new oil frontier. Thousands of households have been resettled along the route. The developers say those affected have been compensated and rehoused and that the projects meet international standards. Musenero said the Pearl Sweet name was also a pledge to manage the resource with care for the environment.
The naming is among the final steps before Uganda becomes a commercial oil exporter, almost two decades after commercial reserves were confirmed in the Albertine Graben.
