How Captain Lugard first detected Uganda's Albertine oil in 1891

The inspiring reality that oil is in Uganda can be dated back to 1891. Around this time, Captain F. Lugard, the British colonial administrator, was in perfect term with the Kabaka of Buganda except for Omukama Kabalega of Bunyoro who was becoming counterproductive to his effort of imposing full British control over the beautiful land, Uganda.

And during one of his furious military attacks on Omukama Kabalega, Captain Lugard finds himself in a very uncommon scene, strange surface seeps of black sticky liquid painting the rocky soils of the northern part of the Lake Albert region. Releasing his arm and dipping his fingers in the black thing and then jacking it back for thorough discernment closely against his eyes, the sticky stuff, with experience was real oil. This mega stun would usher in Lugard's perplexing declaration of ownership over the Albertine oil deposit. A lot has since happened from that historical discovery.

On 28th August 2014, the government of Uganda announced that the oil resources in the Lake Albert region are 6.5 billion barrels in volume. And at least 1 billion barrels is the recoverable oil of those 6.5 billion barrels in the underground shelves. Recoverable oil is technically and economically possible extract from the ground.

At the prevailing global price of US$60 per barrel, Uganda's recoverable oil reserve will potentially turn around the country's economy and see the standard of living for millions of its nationals raised if well managed.

How was the oil formed?

Well, Uganda's Albertine oil was formed millions of years ago when dead plant material drifted down through the renown Lake Albert. The plant material was then buried on the lake floor as minute organic material. And while confined in the rocks on the lake floor, this organic material was then transformed over a long period of time by the immense underground heat and pressure into the crude oil of today. Scientists call the oil formed this way ''fossil oil."

How geologists currently locate the fossil oil

Fossil oils occur in the range of 1.5km to 3km depth in the ground concentrated in isolated deposits. Logically, discovering the precious black gold thus requires a lot of knowledge, use of technology,  and is not only very costly but also time-consuming.

Often, oil can be spotted as seeps on the surface as a black sticky liquid the way Captain Lugard did with the Albertine. But in most cases, geologists start by studying surface features, rock and soil types in the area. These features are by experience closely identical in all areas where oil deposit is.

The next step involves taking a seismic survey. Here, a sound wave is sent into the ground by exploding dynamite. Then the returning sound to the surface is measured using a machine. The particular behaviours of the returning of sound to the surface are then profiled by a simple computer program. As backed up by a number of scientific evidence, the profiling is very predictive of the possibility of oil and is one of the last steps to confirm whether there is oil underneath.

Finally, to confirm beyond any dot of doubt, petroleum engineers will drill small wells deep into the ground and the discovery of black sticky liquid in good quantity would call this a successful oil exploration.

Written by Abet Tonny, a Freelance Science Writer in Uganda.


Sources:
1. Uganda oil timeline
2. Uganda Petroleum Authority
3. Environment: Science behind the stories