KAMPALA (DPA) – Oil exploration firms have turned a remote jungle region in western Uganda into a fast-developing area with roads, airports, schools and other forms of infrastructure being set up overnight.

While the government is encouraged by news that tests are showing that nearly 20,000 barrels per day of have been confirmed from the three wells so far worked on by the Australian and Irish oil exploration firms, local tribesmen are already claiming their share of the proceeds of the 'black gold.'

Energy Minister Daudi Migereko told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that tests from the Waraga-I oil well on the Lake Albert shared by Uganda and the DR Congo showed an output of 10,000 barrels per day and that test results from the two nearby wells showed a combined output of 7400 barrels per day.

'According to tests carried out, the first well productivity was 2400, the second 5000 and the third 10,000 barrels per day.

'Productivity is very good and promising, but tests are still going on. There is going to be transformation of the economy and the country will save alot of foreign exchange on oil imports,' Migereko said.

Uganda imports about 250 million dollars' worth of oil and oil- related products per year against exports of less than 1 billion dollars.

For the past five years, exploration for oil has been going on in the area. Hardman Resources, an Australian company. and the UK-based Tullow Oil company in recent weeks announced the test results which depicted the East African country as being about to join the oil- producing club of nations.

Roads are being constructed to transport the drilling equipment, the minister said. But according to The Monitor a Kampala-based private daily, three airports, a helipad, first-class roads and an army barracks have already been set up in the area.

'The airports capable of accommodating large aircraft have been constructed at Waraga-I and Mputa - and the helipad at neighbouring Kyehoora. The airports have first class murram roads connections to the oil exploration sites,' the newspaper reported 'Villagers are excited.'

Scores of members of the Ugandan army and private security guards are patrolling the dusty streets around the exploration sites, it added.

The paper quoted Hardman's country manager, John Morley, as saying that the firm has sunk 15 million dollars into the exploration project since 2001.

But tribesmen of the Banyoro, whose kingdom area covers that where the oil has been discovered, are already claiming their share of the oil. Their leaders sent a statement to the news media, saying that 51 percent of the oil royalties should go to the tribe.

'Mubende Banyoro Committee has established a Citizen's Oil Committee charged with charting a policy for the equitable distribution of oil benefits to avoid the oil curse that usually accompanies communities where oil is struck.

'We want a 51 percent share of the benefits,' the statement said. The Banyoro leaders' statement also said they were 'keenly aware of the misery, torture and even executions that befell indigenous people in oil-producing areas like in Nigeria, Chad, etc.'

Therefore, the Banyoro were 'not taking any chances,' it said.

'They fear they might be victims of an oil curse that befall local populations when oil is struck in their localities. 'Banyoro also want to establish that as the indigenous community in the locality where oil has been found they should be given a share that reflects their God-given ownership of the natural resource,' they added.

Minister Migereko told DPA that the government is working out details of the oil exploitation and benefits including giving royalties to the concerned parties.

'Regarding the Banyoro issue, the government will issue a policy statement regarding royalties,' he said.