Making History! President Museveni Officially Launches Uganda’s First Commercial Oil Production Drilling
By Uganda Online Media
President Yoweri Museveni has officially launched Uganda’s first of its four planned oil drilling rigs and start drilling the first production well which is a key milestone as the country races to meet its target of first oil output in 2025.
The East African nation discovered commercial reserves of petroleum nearly two decades ago but production has been repeatedly delayed by a lack of infrastructure like a pipeline.
“Today we mark another milestone and move a step closer to first oil with the launch of the drilling of development and production wells for the Kingfisher oil fields,” the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) said in a statement.
Kingfisher, located near the southern flank of Lake Albert in the country’s west, is operated by China’s CNOOC (0883. HK). Uganda’s second project area, Tilenga, located north of Lake Albert astride River Nile, is operated by France’s TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA).
The two firms co-own all of Uganda’s existing oilfields alongside the state-run Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC).
At peak, Uganda plans to produce about 230,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The rig launched on Tuesday will be used to drill a total of 31 wells in Kingfisher while three rigs to be deployed later in the Tilenga project area will drill a total of 426 production wells, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.
Uganda’s crude reserves are estimated at 6.5 billion barrels, of which 1.4 billion barrels are recoverable.
The wells should take two or three months to drill.
Total and CNOOC intend to export crude from the Lake Albert fields to the Tanzanian port of Tanga, via the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). A feeder pipeline will run for 95 km, from Buliisa to Kabaale, linking up to the EACOP.
Construction on the pipeline has been slower than expected, with the company struggling to secure its needed land access deals in Uganda. However, the Ugandan government has said it expects construction to start in the second half of this year.
CNOOC’s plans cover future production from the Kaisa-Tonya field.
