BULIISA, Uganda—One of Africa’s biggest nature parks has turned into a battleground over oil, pitting foreign energy companies and the government of Uganda against environmentalists eager to shed light on their venture.

Oil companies led by London-listed Tullow Oil PLC have found oil reserves estimated to hold up to two billion barrels in the Albertine Rift Valley, which contains Murchison Falls National Park. The park is one of Uganda’s biggest tourism draws and home to elephants, giraffes, lions and rare birds.

Tullow’s project, which contains one of Africa’s biggest onshore oil finds in decades, is seen as crucial to the Central African nation’s economy as the government attempts to diversify away from tourism and rely less on foreign aid. The government has given a Tullow consortium the green light to explore and drill in the park.

“As much as we need to protect the environment, oil is an important resource for the country if properly managed,” said Aryamanya Mugisha, the executive director of Uganda’s state-run National Environmental Management Authority, or NEMA.

That stance has irked environmentalists and villagers who benefit from park tourism. Protected areas support over 80% of Uganda’s tourism industry and bring in about $600 million a year in revenue, according to official estimates.

Big oil and environmentalists have never had an easy relationship, but tensions in Uganda run especially high. Civil society groups say that many of the government’s decisions surrounding oil have been shrouded in secrecy and that details of Tullow project, including any clear plan to minimize its environmental impact, haven’t been disclosed.

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LAGOS, Nigeria—The government of Ghana blocked the estimated $4 billion sale of a stake in a huge oil field, foiling months of talks between potential buyer Exxon Mobil Corp. and the stake’s owner, Kosmos Energy LLC.

The government accused Dallas-based Kosmos of cutting Ghana’s state-run oil company out of discussions about the field’s development and then sharing information about the field with potential buyers without government permission. The government in recent months itself has scouted for partners to work with Ghana’s oil company, including state-run China National Offshore Oil Corp.

Ghanaian Energy Minister Joe Oteng-Adjei said state-run Ghana National Petroleum Corp. would be the only entity allowed to buy the Kosmos stake in the so-called Jubilee field.

Last week, he sent a letter to Exxon informing the company that a deal with Kosmos wouldn’t receive government approval.

The letter, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, said the government is “unable to support an Exxon Mobil acquisition of Kosmos’s Ghana assets.”

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