The government has submitted evaluation reports for prospective and additional oil and gas exploration regions.
The move is intended to broaden Uganda’s oil and gas resource base.
On Tuesday, November 28, 2023, Peter Lokeris, the state minister for minerals, delivered massive quantities of evaluations and evaluation reports on petroleum exploration, development, and production operations.
They cover the Moroto Kadam, Lake Kyoga, and Hoima basins.
The government has begun oil prospecting outside of the Albertine Graben. This will allow Uganda to increase its oil resource base and take use of planned facilities such as the oil pipeline, refinery, airport, and roads that have been completed or are under construction.
The Albertine Graben, one of Uganda’s six sedimentary basins, has been the site of oil and gas finds. Oil is generally discovered in sedimentary basins; a basin is a depression produced on the earth’s surface as a consequence of earth movements.
The investigated region accounts for less than 40% of the Albertine Graben.
The Lake Victoria Basin and the Lake Wamala Basin are two more regions that will be investigated.
Commercial oil and gas resources were discovered in the Albertine Graben in 2006. About sh6.5 billion barrels of oil have been identified, with 1.4 billion barrels recoverable.
Chemaswet Abdi Fadhil Kisos (Soi County, Kween District, NRM) expressed issue regarding the Moroto Kadam Basin’s designation. He proposed naming the basin Elgon-Kadam and Kadam Moroto.
“It is a political question and pride for the people based in the Elgon area to feel included,” Chemaswet said in a statement.
In response, Lokeris stated that the administrative entities are not employed in naming the basins. He stated that all of the districts with possible oil deposits are divided into distinct basins. “The naming is based on geology and not administrative units,” Lokeris noted.
Martin Mapenduzi (Bardege-Layibi Division Gulu City Independent) stated that the Nwoya District, which has oil wells in Murchison Falls National Park, has been left out of oil infrastructure improvements. Mapenduzi stated that a high-level meeting was called to discuss this subject, but it never took place.
The Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, stated that the papers were interesting and that all MPs, particularly those on the Natural Resources and Environment Committee, should examine them.
