Uganda’s UNOC eyes China for funding to begin commercial oil production in 2025

Uganda and neighboring Tanzania are seeking investments of up to $20bn for a slew of new projects across the oil value chain, including to develop an export pipeline before 2025.

The CEO of Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), Proscovia Nabbanja, said that the state-owned oil company is pursuing several projects across the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors after successfully achieving Final Investment Decisions (FID) for its Tilenga and Kingfisher upstream developments, and the midstream East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in February 2022.

Nabbanja said the FIDs have unlocked an aggregate investment of about $15 billion for the next five years and allowed UNOC to start conversations on other critical projects including a refinery, an industrial park and the downstream sector. “It is a strategic project for us because it will not only supply the domestic market but also Southern Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda and other regional markets,” Nabbanja said.

UNOC is planning to a 60,000 barrels of oil per day refinery project, which will supply products to both domestic and regional markets. The company has completed the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for the project while the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment is close to conclusion. Another midstream project coming off the drawing board is the Kabaale Industrial Park, an oil and gas industrial park spread over an area of 29.57 sq km, for which UNOC is seeking a joint venture development partner. In the downstream sector, UNOC is planning to set up a new refined products storage terminal, its second after the 30 million liter capacity Jinja Storage Terminal (JST) in Eastern Uganda.