The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Ruth Nankabirwa Sentamu has revealed Uganda’s oil refinery will start operating in 2027.
Nankabirwa said the refinery is expected to start operating two years after Uganda has achieved first oil in 2025.
She said this during the launch of the National Spill Contingency Plan, at the office of the Prime Minister in Kampala last Friday.
Ms Nankabirwa clarified that the Albertine Graben Refinery Consortium (AGRC) is in its advanced stages, with substantial progress in pre-final investment decision.
She also noted that the consortium will exhaust all pending operations, such that the refinery’s final investment decision is implemented, noting Covid-19 restrictions had delayed fast tracking refinery activities.
“We plan to announce the final investment decision for the refinery probably next year. We are looking for an anchor investor, and therefore, the oil will come before the refinery is commissioned in 2027,” said Nankabirwa.
She added the plan was formulated after Ugandan experts took time to learn from mistakes made by other countries involved in oil drilling.
“We are slow but sure and moving forward to ensure that there are no casualties,” she added.
Expected to produce 60,000 barrels of oil per day, the refinery is expected to be built in Kabaale, Buseruka sub-county in Hoima District.
It will also have support of a 211 kilometre long multi-products pipeline that will evacuate refined products such as petrol, liquefied gas, and kerosene to a storage terminal at Namwabula in Mpigi District.
The AGRC was selected in April 2018 by government as the private sector investors to finance, develop, construct, and operate the Greenfield oil Refinery estimated to cost $4b.
Nankabirwa left the country for Italy late February, after the announcement of the final investment decision for upstream oil projects, to discuss the status of implementation of the scheme framework accord.
Albertine Graben Refinery Consortium (AGRC), is a consortium of international companies like Baker Hughes General Electric, US based Africa focused infrastructure investor, Yaatra Africa, LionWorks Group, and others, that have agreed with the government of Uganda, to invest in, construct, operate and co-own the Uganda Oil Refinery.
The national oil spill preparedness and response mechanism is intended to tackle the risk and vulnerabilities identified in the environment risk assessment and oil spill analysis.
It is also intended to address the management of oil spills to the environment, which may have disastrous effects to the wild life, and contamination of water bodies, and for the safety of spill experts, during spill works.
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