At the just concluded 7th Annual Oil and Gas Convention 2021, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, a board member of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) noted that Uganda is at pivotal stage in its progression to production of first oil.
The virtual conference featured a plethora of speakers and panelists all of whom being key stakeholders in the Oil and Gas Sector: Uganda National Oil Company, Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, PAU as well as private sector players like Total, CNOOC, Stanbic Bank and others.
The progress of exploration activities was one of the major issues discussed and the Ministry of Energy accounted for the 7307 acres of land in Kabaale acquired for development into an oil and gas industrial park.
According to Micheal Mugerwa, General Manager for the refinery project, “the Kabaale industrial park features Uganda’s second international airport which is at 60% physical progress, front-end engineering and design (FEED) work on the Uganda refinery set to be complete in August, with a final investment decision (FID) possible in June 2022”.
Chairperson of the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, Elly Karuhanga, said: “Oil provides an opportunity for Uganda to develop and the Government of Uganda has put in place laws and regulations for Ugandans to participate in the sector.”
Local capacity
The level of participation of local entities was a significant subject of discussion following the Petroleum Act, 2013 which puts local content at the fore front. According to Alex Nyombi, Director for Development and Production at PAU, a list featuring over 2,000 Ugandan entities providing goods or services has been published and registration of entities in various districts is being facilitated through onsite campaigns.
Nyombi added that this practice would, “be done annually to assess our capacity, and give visibility to Ugandan entities”. The Petroleum Authority developed a National Supplier Database (NSD) for petroleum activities and a company cannot provide goods, works or services for petroleum activities unless it is included in the Petroleum Authority’s NSD.
The Authority also boasts of creation of a National Oil and Gas Talent Register that takes stock of locally available capacity and supports identification and recruitment of Ugandans in the sector.
When asked why it is hard for most Ugandan companies to get pre-qualified for registration in the National Supplier Database, Nyombi responded that, “Ugandan companies are given priority but usually face a challenge of financial capacity and where that comes in place then we encourage joint ventures with international companies”.
The two-day virtual conference whose theme was ‘Harnessing opportunities in the oil and gas sector post FID’ also spotlighted businesses that develop infrastructure solutions like McDermott, Schlumberger and was concluded by a speech from the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Robert Kasande.