On the western edge of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, by Lake Albert, there are about 560 million barrels of crude oil sleeping under the land that has been grazed for generations. Ugandans have been waiting for 20 years for this day. On September 10, 2026, the EPC3 project of Cuiniao Oilfield, which was constructed by a Chinese enterprise under general contracting, successfully completed mechanical construction. The central processing plant, well pad, and pipeline on this barren land were connected for the first time, and the core ground engineering of Uganda's first commercial oilfield was fully completed, officially entering the preparation stage for production.

Sponge Building Factory

The Kingfisher Oilfield is located in the Albert Lake Basin in western Uganda, with a large area of soft soil on the surface. Large equipment stepping on it feels like stepping on a sponge, with almost zero bearing capacity. The project team relied on professional engineering technology and global resource coordination capabilities to implement large-scale earthwork replacement, firmly supporting a modern oil and gas processing hub on soft soil foundation. The core project includes a central processing plant with an annual processing capacity of 2 million tons, 4 cluster well sites, a water intake station, inter station pipelines, and a campsite that can accommodate thousands of people. The campsite covers an area of 75000 square meters, equivalent to 10 standard football fields.

783 kilometer pipeline network

Setting up the factory is just the beginning. The builders have laid a total of 83 kilometers of pipelines and over 700 kilometers of cables, with a total length of 783 kilometers. They have installed more than 300 sets of various equipment and transported over 43000 tons of equipment and materials across borders. The project team also independently developed an overseas intelligent visualization project management platform, which enables real-time sharing of data across companies and time zones, providing replicable samples for digital management of overseas engineering.

Local workers carry the heavy beam

Beyond engineering construction, longer-term changes occur in people. The project has employed over 1500 Ugandan employees, with a localization rate of 90%. 135000 man hours of skill training have been carried out, providing Uganda with the first batch of industrial workers who have mastered modern oil and gas engineering skills. At the same time, the project is building a green and multi energy complementary power supply system and a sewage recycling system, moving towards the direction of green and modern oil fields.

Kingfisher Oilfield is jointly invested and developed by CNOOC and Total, with CNOOC Uganda Limited as the operator. COOEC and CNOOC Engineering are EPC contractors of surface engineering, and are key benchmark projects for China Africa energy cooperation and joint construction of the the Belt and Road. After the oil field is fully put into operation, the peak daily production of crude oil will reach 40000 barrels, which will provide strong support for the commissioning and operation of the East African crude oil pipeline. With the naming ceremony for Uganda's crude oil held at the project site in early September, this landlocked country, which has long relied on agriculture and animal husbandry, is standing at the historical threshold of transitioning from a traditional agricultural economy to an energy economy.Editor/Yang Meiling