NTOROKO (Uganda): Until this year, Robert Kazini had never given much thought to whether he was fishing in Congolese or Ugandan waters; it didn’t matter. Nor did it matter much to Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo —until prospectors found oil here.

Now, with crude nearing $100 a barrel and both countries dreaming of billions of petrodollars that could flow from Lake Albert, an ugly and at times deadly dispute over their border is jeopardising the livelihoods of locals like Kazini.

“This border is our big problem,” said the 35-year-old, winding up a wide net into his wood-plank boat. “Congolese soldiers have started arresting us, saying we are in their waters. It’s not safe to fish anymore.”

The 100-mile-long lake — wrenched into existence many millennia ago by the tow of tectonic plates forming Africa’s Great Rift Valley — has in the last two years become a new frontier in the hunt for African oil.

Production on the continent is still dominated by West Africa, but recent finds in Africa’s east have triggered a new rush for exploration rights.

London-based Tullow Oil has three blocks in the Albertine basin spanning Uganda and Congo, two in partnership with Canada’s Heritage Oil Corp. Eight wells have been drilled, all yielding crude.

The companies estimate reserves in this area could be more than a billion barrels, based on drilling and seismic data.

How the two countries will agree on the border remains to be seen. To local fisherman, Lake Albert is a lifeline providing food and income, but the dispute over control of its prospective oil fields is putting that at risk, they say.—Reuters