Uganda's crude oil officially has a name.
President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday unveiled “Pearl Sweet” as the official identity of Uganda's crude oil during a ceremony at the Kingfisher Development Area in Kikuube District.
The naming marks another major moment in Uganda's decades-long journey from oil discovery to commercial production.
The name combines Uganda's famous identity as the “Pearl of Africa” with one of the crude's key technical characteristics — its relatively low sulphur content.
In the petroleum industry, crude oil with low sulphur is described as “sweet,” making it generally easier and less costly to refine compared to high-sulphur crude.
Museveni, who inspected progress at the Kingfisher facilities before the ceremony, described the moment as an important milestone in Uganda's wider economic transformation agenda.
The President likened the ceremony to giving Uganda's petroleum industry a formal identity as the country prepares to enter the global oil market.
“Pearl Sweet” will be produced from Uganda's two flagship oil developments — the Kingfisher project operated by CNOOC Uganda and the Tilenga project operated by TotalEnergies.
At peak production, the two projects are expected to produce a combined 230,000 barrels of oil per day, with Tilenga contributing the larger share and Kingfisher expected to produce about 40,000 barrels daily.
The crude will eventually be transported through the 1,443-kilometre East African Crude Oil Pipeline to Tanzania's Indian Ocean coast for export to international markets.
Uganda's crude presents unique transportation challenges because it is waxy and requires heating to remain fluid. The pipeline has therefore been designed with a specialised heating system to keep the oil flowing from the Albertine Graben to the Tanzanian port of Tanga.
The naming comes as construction and commissioning activities accelerate across the Kingfisher, Tilenga and pipeline projects, with Uganda targeting its long-awaited first commercial oil production before the end of 2026.
For a country that discovered commercially viable petroleum deposits more than two decades ago, Wednesday's ceremony was more than just a branding exercise.
It was the christening of a resource Uganda hopes will transform its economy.
And when the first barrels finally begin flowing onto the international market, they will carry one name: Pearl Sweet.