Anti-ADF assault launched by Museveni in Congo aims to calm Ugandan investors, TotalEnergies, and CNOOC.

The deployment of the Ugandan military in eastern DRC is largely intended to reassure Ugandan investors such as CNOOC and TotalEnergies.

President Yoweri Museveni said in November that he expects TotalEnergies SE and Cnooc Ltd to produce oil from their fields in four years, establishing the groundwork for a new regional fuel center.

Uganda intends to produce 230,000 barrels per day. While this is significantly less than what Africa’s largest producer, Nigeria, produces, it would still make Uganda larger than several OPEC members on the continent.

Mr. Museveni stated in an interview with Bloomberg News on Sunday that output will begin in 2025, and “nobody will modify that.” He was alluding to his agreement with French and Chinese explorers.

There is nothing the government has to do to begin manufacturing, and a final investment decision would be revealed “soon,” he added.

Other opportunities, such as South Sudan’s oilfield and Uganda’s proposed 60,000 barrel-per-day facility, might become part of a broader oil network.

“Now that we have our own oil, there’s no way we can keep importing refined goods with all that extra transportation expense,” Mr. Museveni added.

Uganda is one of many African countries, ranging from Senegal to Mozambique, that anticipate to benefit from proposed oil and gas developments, even as many governments strive to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels due to the impact on global warming.

Uganda is also facing criticism from civil society organizations, whose worries about the pipeline’s effect on the environment and local residents have pushed possible donors like Standard Bank Group Ltd to reconsider their participation.

The non-governmental organizations opposing the proposal are “simply wasting people’s time,” Mr. Museveni added.

Mr. Museveni stated that Uganda is responsible for a small fraction of greenhouse-gas emissions when compared to global industrial superpowers such as China and the United States and that oil will continue to be important to the world because it has uses other than fuel, such as the production of plastics, petrochemicals, and fertilizer.

The president’s project deadline will be difficult to meet.

Uganda’s oil deposits were found roughly 15 years ago, but there have been persistent delays, including a change in the export route.

Breaking ground on the $4 billion refineries has also proven difficult.

The multinational businesses plan to develop the oilfield as well as a 1,443-kilometer (897-mile) heated pipeline to carry the waxy crude from Hoima, Uganda, to Tanga, Tanzania.