Controversial pipeline reveals state of global fight over oil

Oil tanks and construction vehicles at the drilling site by Lake Albert.

Sat, 15 Mar 2025

By Chico Harlan, with assistance from Justin DrazalePhotography by Esther Mbabazi for the Washington PostFor its first 140 completed kilometres, the world’s most controversial oil pipeline system runs in a bulldozed path through the Ugandan countryside.The pipeline runs past elementary schools lacking electricity. It cuts through the banana groves of a farmer skipping meals to survive the dry season. It knifes past a Pentecostal church whose pastor hopes his children will one day have oil jobs. Then, not long after it passes through...

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