abce certificate
Friday, 09 January, 2009, 22:10 GMT | more >>

DR Congo 'pulls out of oil talks'



By Upstream staff 

A crucial meeting between senior energy officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda over cross-border violence in the Lake Albert upstream play was suddenly cancelled after Kinshasa pulled out its delegation, a Ugandan spokesman said today.

The meeting was called by Uganda to defuse tensions with Congo after two shootings in as many months along their border on Lake Albert .

The talks to review a 1990 oil exploration and exploitation agreement between the two countries were due to start today in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

"The Congolese delegation has communicated to us and postponed the meeting indefinitely. They did not give us any reasons," Uganda Mineral & Energy Ministry spokesman Matovu Kiwanuka told Reuters.

Congolese officials were not immediately available for comment, Reuters said.

Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are sitting on what prospectors believe could be oil reserves of up to 1 billion barrels in the Albertine basin they share.

In the last border shooting last month, United Nations officials said six civilians were killed when Ugandan soldiers opened fire on a Congolese passenger boat on Lake Albert.

But Uganda's military said two soldiers were killed, one from each country, in what it said was a gunfight during a dispute over an oil exploration vessel on the lake.

The border row exposes longstanding suspicion on both sides stemming from Congo's 1998-2003 war, in which Kampala backed rebels trying to overthrow the Kinshasa government.


Wednesday, 03 October, 2007, 13:49 GMT  | last updated: Wednesday, 03 October, 2007, 13:49 GMT

e-mail this article to a colleague


to email:  from:
comments: