Kenyan government officials are set to hold a meeting with their Ugandan counterparts to resolve outstanding issues with the hope of influencing the proposed crude oil pipeline route infavour of Continue Reading
The leaders of Uganda and Tanzania agreed at a private meeting on Tuesday to build a crude pipeline across their countries, connecting landlocked oilfields to the Indian Ocean, the Tanzanian Continue Reading
Nairobi — Kenya has shrugged off fears over a decision by neighbouring Uganda to consider building a crude oil pipeline through Tanzania. Kenya brushed aside concerns that Uganda’s plan, if it proves cheaper than the alternatives, would scuttle its infrastructural plans for its own oil pipeline. Acting Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia told the Nation on Wednesday that while Kenya is "keenly keeping a close watch on the unfolding events in Uganda", it would go ahead with its own infrastructural plans "undeterred". "We are going according to our own plans. Nothing has changed," said Mr Macharia in Nairobi. Last month, it emerged that Kenya’s prospects of a crude oil pipeline through Hoima-Lokichar-Lamu could be crushed after Uganda signed an agreement with Tanzania to explore the Tanga route. Uganda, Tanzania, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and Total E&P Uganda signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) outlining new pipeline arrangements. The […]
Kenya started talks with neighboring Uganda on the financing and construction of an oil pipeline that will link the two countries and ferry crude produced by companies including Tullow Oil Plc, the Kenyan Energy Ministry said. Discussions that also looked at project time frames and involved officials from both East African countries began this week, Joseph Njoroge, the ministry’s principal secretary, said in a phone interview from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, on Wednesday. The negotiations follow an announcement by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Aug. 10 that the route for the conduit had been agreed after months of debate. “We have started working out the details together with the Ugandans,” Njoroge said. “We will also engage as many stakeholders as we can. We want this project to take off immediately.” Tullow has found oil in both countries, with Uganda estimating finds at 6.5 billion barrels and Kenya at 600 million […]
Kenya and neighboring Uganda agreed on the route of a planned oil pipeline, ending months of debate on the link that will export crude from companies including Tullow Oil Plc. The pipeline will pass through the Lokichar basin in northern Kenya, Manoah Esipisu, spokesman for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, said Monday by phone from the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The countries had also discussed building the link through southern Kenya and the capital, Nairobi. The agreed design will be the cheapest to develop, according to an e-mailed statement from the Ugandan presidency. Tullow has found oil in both countries, with Uganda estimating finds at 6.5 billion barrels and Kenya at 600 million barrels . The planned $4.5 billion pipeline to the Indian Ocean will allow the U.K. company to start exports from joint ventures with Africa Oil Corp. and Total SA. China’s Cnooc Ltd. is also a partner in Uganda. […]
Last week, the ministry of Energy and Mineral Development released a list of 19 multinational companies that expressed interest in taking up licenses to explore for oil in the Albertine graben. However, the list reveals one glaring reality: Uganda has failed to attract a major company into its oil industry. By most measures, all the companies that have expressed interest are what one would call junior firms, which are more willing to take risks with exploring for oil in wildcat wells. Many of the firms are from Nigeria, South Africa, United Arab Emirates (EAE), and USA. Petroleum directorate officials had said global oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Shell had shown interest in coming to Uganda, after it had been de-risked with success stories from companies such as Heritage Oil and Tullow Oil. Releasing the list of companies on Wednesday, the permanent secretary in the ministry of Energy, […]
Tullow Oil Plc settled a capital gains tax dispute with the government of Uganda after agreeing to pay $250 million related to a 2012 deal with Total SA and Cnooc Ltd. The company paid $142 million at the time and will pay the remaining $108 million in three equal installments, it said Monday in a statement. The first $36 million portion has already been paid with remainder due in 2016 and 2017, it said. Significant output of oil in Uganda, first discovered there in 2006, has been restrained by delays including wrangling between the East African country and companies about how much crude to process locally or export through a pipeline. Uganda has an estimated 3.5 billion barrels of crude, according to the Energy Ministry, with Tullow, Total and Cnooc planning to tap the Lake Albert fields. “In recent months, the government of Uganda has proposed welcome and necessary […]
Repairs to the railway network operated by RVR in Kenya and Tanzania. Transport infrastructure remains a challenge as Uganda readies itself for oil production. Uganda’s planned crude oil refinery will take five years to complete, a representative of the firm that won the bid to build the multi-billion 60,000 barrels per day facility has revealed. Andrey Kozenyashev, the Regional Representative of RT Global Resources in East Africa told an industry meeting convened by the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum in Kampala yesterday that the company anticipates to complete the project in 2020 at the earliest. "After signing the agreement, it will take one and a half years to do the designs and then three years for construction of the facility," Kozenyashev said. The RT-Global Resources-led consortium beat off a challenge from another consortium led by South Korea’s SK Group to win the $2.5 billion project that will involve […]
Bank of Uganda says oil prices are too low to realize nation’s full oil potential and production targets. Photo courtesy Tullow Oil KAMPALA, Uganda, April 22 (UPI) — A weakened crude oil market means investments might not materialize in time to finance Uganda’s fledgling oil sector, the Bank of Uganda said. The Bank of Uganda said in a monetary policy report for April there are lingering questions over the nation’s oil development given the low price of oil and the investments needed to exploit the type of crude oil found in the country. "Whereas oil production had been projected to start in 2018, this date could now be pushed out even further, given that the profitability of oil investments could remain depressed in the foreseeable future," the report said. Crude oil prices are trading at around 40 percent below their June 2014 highs, forcing energy companies to spend less […]
Uganda has rewarded a $4bn oil refinery deal to a subsidiary of Russia’s Rostec, whose CEO has been subject to US sanctions. Uganda and RT Global Resources will now negotiate the terms of a joint venture to engineer and finance the $2.5bn refinery plus a product pipeline and associated infrastructure. The decision to award the contract cements growing ties between Moscow, and the country, which increasingly characterises the west as a neo-colonial aggressor. The CEO, Sergei Chemezov, is a former KGB officer and close ally of President Vladimir Putin. The US blocked his assets and prohibited companies from dealing with him since April 2014 in response to Russia’s military involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The EU followed suit in September. Although Uganda is under no legal compulsion to comply with the sanctions, the decision will further threaten its international standing. Uganda’s global standing was knocked last year […]
