Uganda to announce next bid round in May
Sopuruchi Onwuka, with agency reports
Investors and players seeking assets in Uganda must start early bid packaging ahead of May when the country is scheduled announce its next exploration licensing round.
Uganda’s Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu in a statement declared hat the next oil and gas licensing round would be announced at the 10th East African Petroleum Conference and Exhibition (EAPCE) upcoming in May.
Earlier this month, the Ugandan Cabinet approved the signing of Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) with the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and Australia’s DGR Global.
The Oracle Today reported last week that Uganda deployed Chinese rigs to spud a drilling campaign as it prepares to start production by 2025.
The spokesman for Uganda’s ministry of energy and mineral development, Solomon Muyita, said the beginning of drilling at the Kingfisher oil field in the Kikuube district was aimed at achieving commercial oil production.
The China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC, operates the field, and Uganda is estimated to have recoverable oil reserves of at least 1.4 billion barrels.
Muyita also said construction is starting this year on the 897-mile (1,443-kilometer) East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, planned by TotalEnergies and CNOOC, between Uganda and the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania. Authorities have described it as the world’s longest heated oil pipeline.
Ugandan authorities see the pipeline which is scheduled to be completed by 2025 as key to economic development and assert that oil wealth can lift millions out of poverty.
Uganda’s National Environmental Management Authority has sought to ease environmental concerns. And Muyita asserted that thousands of families displaced by the project have been compensated.
