Uganda: Government promises oil refinery in 3 years

By Julius Businge

The Assistant Commissioner for petroleum exploration and production in the ministry of Energy Robert Kasande says the refinery to process Uganda’s crude oil will be ready in three years after government completing a feasibility study regarding its size, products and costs of the facility.

The official made the remarks at the open mind forum on oil on Feb.15 in Kampala, the capital city. He said it is estimated that the refinery will produce about 20, 000 oil barrels per day initially and about 60,000 oil barrels per day when operations have been stepped up.

However, Kasande who is the project manager did not disclose the cost of the refinery and when interested companies had submitted bids to tender the project.

Some of the products to be refined are Liquid Petroleum Gas, Gasoline (petrol), Kerosene and lubricating oils.

The Albertine Graben of Western Uganda has about 2.5bn barrels of Crude Oil. However, the “recoverable reserves”, are estimated to be 1bn barrels.

Tullow oil Plc, Total, and CNOOC, are companies holding concessions with government of Uganda to explore oil in the region.