The East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project (EACOP), headed by French oil giant TotalEnergies, involves drilling for oil in Uganda and sending the crude to Tanzania for export.
Environmental groups say the project is having dire consequences for local communities and the environment as drilling is taking place in Murchison Falls National Park, the largest protected area in Uganda.
"There are 21 people arrested, they included 19 males and two females," said Samuel Wanda, one of the defence lawyers.
The group had attempted to march on parliament and the Chinese embassy.
Eight of those detained would be directly impacted by the TotalEnergies project, Wanda said.
He said the protesters were being held at Kampala's central police station but officers were yet to detail the charges.
In a petition seen by AFP, the protesters issued an "urgent appeal against the continued violations of human and environmental rights by the EACOP project".
The petition said the oil scheme is a "threat to Uganda's local economies" and has negative "social and cultural impacts".
TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) are drilling in Lake Albert, which has an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of crude, including about 1.4 billion barrels that are currently considered recoverable.
The crude will be shipped through a 1,443-kilometre (900-mile) heated pipeline from the oilfields in northwestern Uganda to Tanzania's Indian Ocean port of Tanga.
TotalEnergies has a 62-percent stake in the pipeline, with Ugandan and Tanzanian state-owned oil companies holding 15 percent each and CNOOC eight percent.
Uganda's first oil is expected to flow in 2025 -- almost two decades after the reserves were discovered -- and the project has been hailed by President Yoweri Museveni as an economic boon for the landlocked country where many live in poverty.
TotalEnergies says those displaced by the project have been fairly compensated and measures have been taken to protect the environment.
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