When we discuss oil production, a paradox develops in regards to environmental preservation policies, Oil. like all fossil fuels, is one of the most polluting products because of the millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions that oil products put into the atmosphere globally every year, thereby causing climate change. So when we claim to fight climate change yet the country is putting all its hopes for the future on starting oil production as soon as possible, we have to be more pragmatic and efficient about the paradox. Especially as a tiny and poor Third world country that needs to protect its environment and also uplift the standards of living of its people simultaneously through development. We therefore need to be smarter and more efficient in our oil production.. Remember that Uganda's oil reserves estimates are around 5 billion barrels of oil in the ground. And only 1 billion barrels from that total amount is extractable. Which means that more than 4 billion barrels of Uganda's oil reserves will remain underground and will never be extracted or commercialized. In economic terms, this means a high production cost for the little oil that we will be able to produce. However with the increasing amount of innovative research going on globally around fighting climate change, new technologies are emerging including in oil production. For example, there are now ways to use carbon dioxide, the main culprit causing climate change, to help oil extraction. So Uganda should look at any new possibilities that mitigate oil production in regards to fighting climate change. Including the new technologies which could re-insert carbon dioxide into the soil where the 4 billion barrels of inextricable oil are located. What happens biochemically is that the carbon dioxide then dissolves the oil that is stuck underground and easily brings it up for production and refining. At this juncture where countries are looking for ways to transition from carbon heavy pollutants to cleaner energies so as to reduce carbon emissions, this temporary system helps make use of the very carbon dioxide that is causing climate change, while helping in oil extraction simultaneously. A form of recycling which ends up helping to clean the atmosphere. It definitely helps advance the research and market of new technologies that capture and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for meaningful use. In Uganda's case it will also mean more productivity from the limited oil resources. From just one billion barrels, we will be able to extract the entire 5 billion barrels of the country's total oil reserves. This means at least four times more oil income than what the country is expecting today.
By Hussein Lumumba Amin 17/02/2018 -- _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list WestNileNet@kym.net http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
