French oil giant TotalEnergies has started drilling oil wells in Uganda as part of the massive East African Crude Oil Pipeline project that has been opposed by environmental and human rights groups.

TotalEnergies said Wednesday it had started drilling at its Tilenga project on the northern end of Lake Albert in Uganda this month "to start production in 2025".

The Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) said "the drilling of development wells" began on 28 June.

Over 400 wells "are expected to be drilled... to produce about 190,000 barrels of oil per day at peak when production starts in 2025," the PAU said in a statement to the AFP news agency.

TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) signed an agreement last year to develop Ugandan oilfields and ship the crude via a 1,445-kilometre pipeline to Tanzania's Indian Ocean port of Tanga.

CNOOC started drilling at its Kingfisher site on the shores of Lake Albert in January.

A coalition of environmental pressure groups said on Wednesday that drilling projects, which are partly located in the Murchison Falls National Park, and the associated pipeline, will be detrimental to global efforts to cut reliance on fossil fuels and would devastate the park's ecosystem.

"Total continues its greenwashing, trying to convince that its oil wells will not affect the local fauna thanks to the beige colour of the drilling towers 'to look like the surrounding savannah'," Friends of the Earth France and Survive said in a statement.

They noted that one third of the 400 wells due to be bored will be within the park.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the project will have dire consequences for local communities and the environment.

The company said it had offered fair compensation and would "continue to pay close attention to respecting the rights" of the communities concerned, and that oil development will be limited to an area that is less than one percent of the park land.

(with newswires)