Uganda will launch a new oil exploration licensing round in the next financial year.
The East African nation expects to begin commercial crude production later this year and wants to grow its reserves through fresh discoveries.
Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa told a petroleum conference that Uganda will open its third round of petroleum exploration licenses in the financial year starting in July.
She said the round will include new exploration blocks in the Albertine Graben and other frontier basins.
The government opened Uganda’s previous licensing round in 2019, offering five blocks, and completed the process in 2023.
Uganda holds about 6.5 billion barrels of existing reserves, all located in the Albertine Graben along its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The energy ministry says explorers have covered only 40% of the region so far.
The government is also carrying out early exploration surveys in the Moroto-Kadam and Kyoga basins in the north and northeast of the country.
France’s TotalEnergies and China’s CNOOC jointly own and operate Uganda’s current oil fields alongside the state-owned Uganda National Oil Company.
source: www.cnbcafrica.com
African Energy Council