By Ronald Musoke Politicians disagree over oil money as businesses face bankruptcy During a meeting on securing Uganda’s oil revenue on Sept.13 in Kampala, disagreement erupted among top politicians and national economic planners on how best to spend the expected bounty. But business people and civil society leaders had a …
Read More »Secret oil deals
By Haggai Matsiko New rules to force CNOOC, Total, Tullow to reveal money paid The U.S’s Securities and Exchange Commission has finally issued the long awaited new rules that outline how oil, gas and mining companies must comply with Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection …
Read More »No cause for worry over oil waste
By Naomi N. Karekaho Government recognises the challenges in managing petroleum waste and the need to agree on a solution On June 15, The Independent magazine published an article: `Living in fear of oil waste’. The article was rooted in the conservationist ideas usually advanced by NGOs and civil society …
Read More »Guns in oil region
By Haggai Matsiko Fears of popular resistance fueling army, intelligence deployments In less than a month, the UPDF top brass and top spies have held two unusual security meetings in the oil region. During one of the meetings, on May 5 Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) …
Read More »Living in fear of oil waste
By Haggai Matsiko Expectations of oil cash give way to anxiety as oil waste regulations delay The presence of billions of barrels of oil – the black gold- would ordinarily arouse great expectations in the minds of people everywhere. Not so in the Albertan Graben. Increasingly, a voice of communities …
Read More »Land grabbing in oil region
By Haggai Matsiko A Minister threatens to evict 2,000 as big-wigs scramble for public land in oil region Somewhere in Hoima district the small sub county of Kyangwali is home to one of the Albertine’s biggest oil fields — Kingfisher – said to be one of the largest oil wells …
Read More »Tullow’s oil spin
By Agather Atuhaire Firm grabs positive headlines but critics say bribery allegations remain While appearing before the Parliamentary Ad hoc Committee on Oil on April 11 to defend themselves against bribery allegations, Tullow Oil Uganda officials said the Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) they signed with Uganda are the most unfavorable …
Read More »Parliament to pass weak laws on oil
By Haggai Matsiko & Mubatsi Asinja Habati Corruption feared as laws vest too much power in executive over contracts The government has abandoned a key legislation for the oil sector—the Oil Revenue Management Bill—without which revenues from the sector might end up managed poorly. The government had promised to table …
Read More »Can MPs improve oil contracts? Part II
By Andrew M. Mwenda Parliamentary intervention in government contracts has been consistently counterproductive because MPs do not look at all sides (…continued from last week) I argued in this column last week that parliamentary intervention stopping the signing of oil contracts is likely to make a bad situation worse. First, …
Read More »Can MPs improve oil contracts? Part I
By Andrew M. Mwenda We should be suspicious of parliamentary interventions in lucrative government contracts because they often make a bad situation worse Recently, President Yoweri Museveni ordered government of Uganda officials to sign oil Production Sharing Agreements with companies. This was in spite of a resolution by parliament stopping …
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