The Tilenga oil project operated by TotalEnergies introduces a parallel development dynamic in Buliisa District, where corporate social responsibility obligations fund school and road construction in communities affected by pipeline infrastructure.
Approximately 1,200 households in Buliisa have received resettlement compensation or livelihood restoration packages under the project’s Resettlement Action Plan. However, community advocacy groups continue to press for stronger environmental safeguards along the Lake Albert shoreline.
The coexistence of petroleum extraction and conservation programming in the same district creates a layered institutional environment that UWA and district local governments are still working to coordinate.
The Tilenga Project is Murchison Falls National Park’s most consequential industrial neighbor and occupies a stretch of the Albertine Graben that overlaps directly with the park’s southern boundary.
Murchison Falls National Park covers 3,840 square kilometers of northwestern Uganda, making it the country’s largest gazetted conservation zone.
Since 2012, this same rift valley basin has also hosted TotalEnergies’ upstream oil extraction operation, developed in partnership with CNOOC and UNOC.
That is a considerable amount of ground to share with a petroleum development zone, and the overlap with a Category II protected area creates operational realities few safari destinations face.
How does a national park absorb an industrial footprint of this scale while maintaining its ecological function? Read on to find out.
What Is the Tilenga Project?
The Tilenga Project is an upstream oil extraction operation situated in the Buliisa and Nwoya districts of western Uganda, within the Albertine Graben rift basin.
TotalEnergies operates the project with a 54.29 percent working interest, while China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) holds 33.33 percent and the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) retains the remaining 12.38 percent stake.
The development sits directly adjacent to the southern boundary of Murchison Falls National Park, placing industrial infrastructure within a few kilometers of gazetted conservation land.
| Parameter | Detail |
| Operator | TotalEnergies EP Uganda |
| Partners | CNOOC (33.33%), UNOC (12.38%) |
| Location | Buliisa and Nwoya districts, Albertine Graben |
| Planned well count | Approximately 318 production wells |
| Well pad count | 13 clustered drilling sites |
| Central Processing Facility | Kabaale, Buliisa District |
| Estimated recoverable reserves | 1.5 billion barrels across the Tilenga and Kingfisher licenses |
| Downstream connection | East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), 1,443 kilometers to Tanga, Tanzania |
The project’s primary objective is to extract light crude oil from the Lake Albert basin and channel it southward through EACOP to the Tanzanian coast for export.
TotalEnergies originally targeted first oil production for 2025, though financing negotiations, environmental litigation in French courts, and pipeline construction delays have pushed that timeline forward.
As of 2026, the project remains in advanced construction and commissioning, with well pad infrastructure and the Kabaale processing facility approaching operational readiness. Production volumes are projected to reach approximately 190,000 barrels per day at peak output once all 13 well pads are fully active.
The Project’s Footprint in and Around Murchison Falls National Park
The geographic intersection between the Tilenga Project and Murchison Falls National Park concentrates in the park’s southern and western reaches, within Buliisa District near the Lake Albert shoreline.
TotalEnergies has positioned 6 of its 13 well pads within the park’s gazetted boundaries in this zone, while the remaining pads occupy the adjacent Bugungu Wildlife Reserve and surrounding Buliisa land.
The Kabaale Central Processing Facility sits on the Lake Albert escarpment, roughly 15 kilometers southwest of the park’s core area.
Proximity to the falls
The Murchison Falls themselves sit in the southern sector of the park, accessed from the north bank by crossing the Victoria Nile via the newly constructed Paraa Bridge.
This places the falls in the same general southern and western zone as the Buliisa oil infrastructure, with several well pads sitting within 10 to 15 kilometers of the falls area and the Lake Albert delta.
The northern circuits
The Buligi Peninsula game drive area occupies the northwestern corner of the park, north of the Victoria Nile where it meets Lake Albert.
This zone remains the most visited game viewing circuit in the park and sits farther from the primary drilling sites.
Paraa, the park’s main accommodation and logistics hub, sits on the north bank of the Nile and functions as the gateway to both the northern circuits and the southern falls access route.
The most visible infrastructure change within the park is the road system. TotalEnergies has built over 100 kilometers of new access roads inside and along the park perimeter to service well pads and the Kabaale facility.
These roads cut through savanna woodland and seasonal wetland corridors that function as habitat linkages for elephant and Rothschild’s giraffe populations moving between the Bugungu area and the broader park interior.
Environmental and Wildlife Concerns
Habitat fragmentation represents the most immediate ecological consequence of the Tilenga footprint inside the park.
The 100 kilometers of new access roads built by TotalEnergies cut through savanna woodland and riverine vegetation zones that elephants and Rothschild’s giraffes use for seasonal movement.
Road construction clears a corridor roughly 10 to 15 meters wide per route, converting continuous habitat into segmented patches that alter grazing patterns and reduce available foraging area for resident herbivore populations.
Wildlife corridor disruption follows directly from this road expansion. The Bugungu corridor, which connects the southern savanna to the Lake Albert delta wetlands, serves as a critical movement route for an estimated 1,200 elephants that range across the greater Murchison Falls ecosystem.
New infrastructure bisects parts of this linkage, forcing animals to navigate around well pads and processing zones during seasonal migrations between dry- and wet-season grazing areas.
Water resource impacts concentrate around the Lake Albert basin and the Victoria Nile delta. The lake supports a fishery that sustains approximately 30,000 people in surrounding communities, and the delta wetlands provide essential habitat for hippo pods and Nile crocodile breeding sites.
Construction activity near the lake shoreline introduces sediment runoff and potential hydrocarbon contamination risks into a freshwater system that already experiences seasonal fluctuation in water quality due to upstream agricultural inputs.
Noise and artificial light from drilling operations and the Kabaale processing facility affect nocturnal species’ behavior within a 2 to 5 kilometer radius of active well pads.
Seismic surveys conducted during the exploration phase generated sound levels exceeding 160 decibels at the source, and ongoing drilling operations maintain elevated ambient noise in the park’s southern sector.
Species such as the African fish eagle and various bat populations rely on acoustic cues for hunting and navigation, making them particularly sensitive to sustained industrial sound.
TotalEnergies has implemented mitigation protocols to address these pressures.
The company uses directional drilling technology that allows multiple wells to be accessed from a single pad, reducing the surface footprint by an estimated 40 percent compared to conventional vertical drilling.
Construction crews follow restricted work schedules during peak breeding seasons for key species, and the project maintains a team of approximately 30 wildlife monitors on site to manage animal displacement during active construction phases.
Replanting programs using indigenous tree species are underway along decommissioned access routes.
Conservation organizations including AFIEGO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature have raised concerns about whether these measures adequately address the cumulative ecological load on the park.
AFIEGO’s 2024 assessment argued that the combined footprint of well pads, roads, and the Kabaale facility exceeds the thresholds established in the original Environmental and Social Impact Assessment approved by NEMA.
What This Means for Safari Visitors to Murchison Falls
Day-to-day safari operations at Murchison Falls National Park continue on their established schedule despite ongoing construction activity in the Buliisa sector.
The launch trip to the base of the falls, the Paraa game drive circuits, and chimpanzee tracking in Budongo Forest remain open and accessible year-round. Uganda Wildlife Authority recorded approximately 95,000 visitor arrivals to the park in 2024, reflecting steady demand even with industrial activity in the southern sector.
The boat cruise from Paraa to the falls base covers roughly 17 kilometers along the Victoria Nile and passes through the park’s most concentrated wildlife zone.
This route operates daily and sits well outside the active drilling perimeter.
The Buligi Peninsula game drive circuit in the northwest corner of the park uses its own road network, separated from the Buliisa infrastructure zone by the full width of the park.
Visible changes.
The most noticeable on-the-ground difference is the presence of new paved roads and construction vehicles in the southern and western sections near the Lake Albert escarpment.
You will likely see heavy transport trucks on the route between the Paraa Bridge and the Buliisa district boundary during weekday working hours.
The Kabaale processing facility is visible from elevated viewpoints along the escarpment road, and the 6 well pads inside the park perimeter are marked with fencing and security checkpoints that restrict access to authorized personnel.
Visitor numbers and park operations
Uganda Tourism Board data places Murchison Falls National Park among the country’s top three most visited protected areas alongside Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Park entry fees remain at $45 per adult per 24-hour period for foreign non-residents, and the Uganda Wildlife Authority has maintained its standard operating hours and permit system throughout the construction period.
Some visitors factor industrial development into their destination choices, and an active oil extraction project within a Category II protected area boundary raises legitimate questions about conservation priorities.
The decision to visit is personal.
The park’s wildlife populations and ecological processes continue to function within the current development footprint, and tourism revenue contributes approximately $1.2 million annually to the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s operational budget for Murchison Falls.