evidence: As stated in the introduction, oil development in eastern Africa raises specific issues which were generally not found in Western Africa. Border litigations represent the first issue. In this respect, Lake Albert first drew attention in August 2007 when an engineer from Heritage Oil was killed by Congolese soldiers while conducting a seismic survey close to the island of Rukwanzi in the southern part of the lake. Heritage Oil argued they were on Uganda’s side of the border when this happened while the Congolese soldiers—who had summoned the boat occupants a couple of hours before the shoot-out—explained the survey was conducted in Congolese territory. This specific dynamic in border conflicts has implications for state sovereignty. The cherished principle by nation-states becomes even more important where oil is speculated or deposits are confirmed at the disputed border. No wonder that overzealous nationals and state agents can kill, to protect first sovereignty and next to an anticipated economic yield from the oil. As a result of the above incidents at the border, two bilateral agreements between DRC and Uganda (Ngurdoto in 2007 and Dar es Salaam in 2008) were signed to prevent other similar conflicts. The island of Rukwanzi is now jointly administered by the two countries and litigation on the border demarcation is or the time being frozen with an explicit ban on exploring oil in a strip of five kilometers along the two sides of the former colonial border.