Zakalia Lubega, the Head of Corporate Affairs at CNOOC Uganda speaking to journalists at the sidelines of the handover ceremony for 56 resettlement housing units for the Project Affected Persons (PAPs)
CNOOC Uganda will start generating electricity once oil production starts in the second quarter of 2025.
Zakalia Lubega, the Head of Corporate Affairs at CNOOC Uganda, made the revelation at the sidelines of the handover ceremony for 56 resettlement housing units for the Project Affected Persons (PAPs) held last Thursday in Kikuube district.
“For the future, when we start (oil) production here, there is going to be power generation through our Central Processing Facility (CPF) and we will be looking at options of how maybe that excess power can be put into the national grid and also to work with the Government to see how before it goes to the national grid, whether it can benefit the people within these communities that are amidst our operations,” Lubega said. He didn’t reveal how much electricity power the company will generate.
CPF is where oil will be collected through flow lines. At the CPF, cleaning of oil will take place; oil will be separated from the gas, water, sand and other solids.
The oil will then be transported through a 46.7km feeder pipeline to the refinery in Kabaale, Hoima.
From Kabaale, the crude will be processed to the international market level ready for transportation through the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to Tanga in Tanzania.
Uganda currently has 850 Megawatts (MW) of installed capacity (with effective generation of approximately 710 MW), of which approximately 645 MW is hydro and 101.5 MW is thermal generating capacity.
According to Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), only 1.7 million out of the eight million Ugandan households are connected to the national electricity grid.
Speaking at the same event, Francis Kazini, the Buhaguzi County MP, asked the Chief Guest, the State Minister for Minerals, Peter Lokeris, to ensure that Kikuube district is connected to the national grid.
“Kikuube is an oil district but many areas are not connected with electricity. Let’s have most of the areas connected to the national grid,” Kazini said.
In response, Minister Lokeris pledged to ensure that power is extended to the area, urging the lawmaker to follow-up the matter with him and the Energy Ministry.
“Continue coming there (Energy ministry) and power will be here. The area cannot develop without power; power will be here,” Lokeris said.
He also urged the local community to engage in productive activities so as to utilize the newly built roads that have made access to markets easy.
Meanwhile, the Kingfisher Oil Development Area is a beehive of activity as a number of earth-moving machines and trucks for Excel Construction Limited, a Ugandan company, which scooped the US$23.2m (UShs81.9bn) PC1 deal for the Kingfisher in February this year, are seen busy as works to construct the well pads, access roads, and water intake points intensifies.
Kingfisher which is managed by CNOOC Uganda, is located on the shores of Lake Albert in Kikuube district and will produce 40,000 barrels of oil per day at peak, while the Tilenga project which is managed by TotalEnergies EP Uganda will produce 190,000 barrels per day.
It is worth noting that the oil projects are managed by joint venture partners including TotalEnergies EP Uganda with 56.67% shareholding, CNOOC Uganda 28.33% and UNOC with 15%.
Uganda has so far discovered 6.5 billion barrels of oil in the Albertine Graben and about 1.7 billion of these are recoverable.
Minister Lokeris said the handover of the resettlement houses is a big milestone regarding the oil and gas projects as it signifies that the EPC Contractors can access the project acquired lands without encumbrances, giving assurances of meeting the schedule for First Oil in the second quarter of 2025.
