Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa addressing participants at the Conference.
Energy and Mineral Development Minister, Ruth Nankabirwa, has tasked the oil and gas stakeholders to ensure that the country’s first oil flows out of the ground by June 2025.
Nankabirwa was Tuesday morning speaking at the opening of the 3rd Annual National Content Conference taking place at Serena Hotel in Kampala.
The two-day conference, convened by the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), is running under the theme: “Creating Lasting Value through Enhanced National Participation to Accelerate Uganda’s Socio-Economic Transformation.”
But to achieve the details contained in the theme (socio-economic transformation), Nankabirwa said: “We want our oil up and running by June 2025.”
“..And we want our oil refined. That means we need our refinery up by 2026/2027,” Nankabirwa noted.
According to Nankabirwa, “all that is intended to end poverty. We want Ugandans to enjoy.”
Nankabirwa says that the country is obliged to end poverty by 2030 (as catered for under SDG I) and that the oil and gas sector is being looked at as one of the key sectors to achieve poverty eradication eight years from now.
On top of the oil, Nankabirwa said that the Petroleum Fund which is entirely dedicated to infrastructure development is the other area being looked at. She said putting up infrastructures such as roads, among others, are key in fighting poverty.
The minister encouraged Ugandan businesses to take up opportunities in the oil and gas sector and build their capacity so as to maximize local participation. “We are interested in having a significant number of Ugandans retained (in the oil and gas projects),” she said.
Earlier, PAU Executive Director, Ernest Rubondo said that currently, there is a beehive of activities in the Tilenga, Kingfisher and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline projects. He said these are as a result of the Final Investment Decision (FID) announcement. These activities are expected to attract investments worth US$ 3 billion this year and between US$ 3.5 billion and US$ 4 billion in 2023. This is the largest investment in the country by just one sector. Rubondo says that first sector to have attracted nearly such an investment brought in US$ 1 billion.
According to Rubondo, the Conference will highlight on-going and upcoming opportunities in the Tilenga, Kingfisher and EACOP projects. These opportunities are exciting, Rubondo said. To this, Rubondo says that there are investment, employment and opportunity for providing goods and services.
In general, Uganda’s oil and gas sector is expected to attract US$ 15 billion over the 5-year period.
