East Africa: Uganda Oil Can Feed EA Region

Heritage Oil and Gas Company will this week hold negotiations with the Government to construct a refinery that will supply the East African region with petroleum products, a senior company official said.

Last week, Uganda’s single biggest oil find was announced by the oil company at Kingfisher well in Bunyoro with a flow rate close to 14,000 barrels of oil per day.

Bryan Westwood, the company’s country director, said: “We cannot accelerate the production time to earlier than 2009. We have, however, considered the possibility of a mini refinery because the cost of constructing a pipeline is much higher.”
President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, who was on a tour of the oil site in Buhaguzi sub-county, Hoima district on Sunday.

Westwood said the mini- refinery was capable of producing diesel, paraffin, heavy oils and aviation oil. He, however, said it could not produce petrol. “With this, we can provide the whole of East Africa with fuel and we shall become self-sufficient.”

The company is currently in the process of acquiring a bigger rig that can drill deeper.

The Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Kabagambe Kaliisa, said Uganda currently consumes 12,000 barrels of petroleum products a day.

He explained that the combined discovery of about 26,000 barrels a day is much higher than the country’s consumption.

AllAfrica