By Tom Oniro Elenyu
The advent is here. Wrapped up in pressure-cooker preparations in readiness for the regional first-ever oil, development details filtering through indicate that the power of ambition in land-locked, but land-linked ‘Pearl of Africa’ is railing towards a fulcrum: Uganda’s road to First Oil is a paved one. “Oil and gas must not become a crutch for the economy. Instead, it must become a foundation for economic diversification, industrial development and sustainable national transformation,” Energy and Minerals’ minister, Ruth Nankabirwa, said on 13 May at the 3rd Annual Oil and Gas Skills Expo at Makerere University in Kampala.
In 2016, Uganda chose the Kabaale (Hoima)-Tanga Route for its oil export considering it the most cost-effective and technically-sound option after thorough route evaluation; hence the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
“The First Oil will be combined with EACOP Pipeline. So, the momentum is good. The timing is good for the oil and gas timeline in Uganda. The Technical Commissioning is expected in June and July. Technical commissioning means all systems speak to each other. “Unfortunately,” Energy and Minerals’ Permanent Secretary Eng Pauline Irene Bateebe, said on local talk show programme Spectrum on Kampala’s Radio One, 30 April, “our oil will take about two months to reach the Port of Tanga. You know our oil is a medium-heavy oil; it’s a heated pipeline. So, it will take about two months to pump it up to the Port of Tanga. They are getting the radar working and synchronising the system.”
At the risk of the era of oil delivery metamorphosing into an ‘error’, EACOP says in an April Newsletter that as construction activities continue, the EACOP Project remains focused on delivering a world-class energy infrastructure project that will enhance regional connectivity and contribute to the economic development of both Tanzania and Uganda.
EACOP is a buried 1,443-km pipeline transporting crude oil from Uganda’s Lake Albert area to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast in Tanga Port. It includes a 24-inch electrically-heated pipeline, six pumping stations, two pressure reduction stations and a marine export terminal. It is operated by a company jointly owned by Total Energies-Uganda, China National Offshore Oil Corporation-Uganda Limited, Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation.
The pipeline carries government and joint venture-owned oil to Tanga for international sales. Ownership of the oil remains with Uganda’s government and the Upstream Joint Venture Partners. “The delay is largely because of the legal framework and complexity of this industry. Then protracted negotiations with our partners, then the technical design of the project, Project Affected Persons.
“So,” Bateebe said, “it has been a journey. We have put robust frameworks to make sure that this oil benefits the people of Uganda. We have already engaged the Finance ministry which will make sure the oil revenue goes to the Oil Fund managed by Bank of Uganda. Uganda has joined ETI [Extractive Transparency Initiative].”
Sustainability of Uganda’s oil and gas sector is 20 years, according to Bateebe. “We have done preliminary investigations in Kadam in Moroto [North-Eastern Uganda], Lake Kyoga Basin [straddling mid-Eastern and partly Central Uganda] and also the remaining parts of the Lake Albert Basin.”
On 30 September 2024, EACOP received delivery of the first batch of coated line pipe for construction in Uganda. China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Company Limited, EACOP’s contractor, received a delivery of nine trucks from the coating plant in Tanzania of insulated line pipe at the Main Camp and Pipe Yard in Kyotera District. These pipes are welded and buried along the right of way to transport Uganda’s crude oil and their delivery demonstrates the continued progress of the project.
In the upstream, the earliest reference to oil in Uganda was about an oil seepage near Kibiro on Lake Albert’s shores in mid-western Uganda. The first contribution to evaluating the country’s hydrocarbon potential was E. J Wayland, a Government geologist, who documented numerous hydrocarbon occurrences in the Albertine Graben in the 1920s. Uganda’s confirmed petroleum resource base is currently estimated at 6.5 billion barrels of Stock Tank Oil-Initially-In-Place. Of this, between 1.4 -1.7 billion barrels are estimated to be recoverable. UNOC’s two wholly-owned subsidiaries drive the midstream sector. UNOC manages the downstream sub-sector. The portfolio includes management and operation of 30 million-litre capacity Jinja Storage Terminal in eastern Uganda. There is also planned project underway to develop a 240 million-litre capacity Kampala Storage Terminal, North-West of Kampala.
In the status update on the oil and gas projects in relation to ‘First Oil’, Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) Manager Corporate Affairs, Gloria Sebikari tells Pan African Visions that the First oil is still targeted by the end of 2026. According to Sebikari, the status of the key projects stands at 68% overall progress at Tilenga where three drilling rigs are currently undertaking drilling and 212 out of the 170 wells required for the first oil have already been drilled.
At Kingfisher, meanwhile, according to Sebikari, the overall project has reached 77% mark with 22 out of the 19 wells required for the first oil already drilled with drilling operations ongoing in one rig. “Other construction works, such as;” says Sebikari, “the respective industrial areas (CPFs, camps etc), flowlines, Lake water Abstraction and other works for both upstream projects are progressing. In some projects, three shifts have been introduced since November 2025 to fast-track progress of the critical facilities required for [the] first oil.”
Overall, EACOP project progress is at 84%. “All the required pipes for the project (including the Tilenga Feeder Line) both in Uganda and Tanzania have been insulated (over 1,565km). All the pipes required for both the Tanzania and Uganda section of the EACOP have been delivered to the right of way,” says she, continuing: “The last batch was delivered to Uganda on 10 January 2026. Over 370km of pipes have been welded on Uganda’s right of way and over 1,000km in Tanzania. The project now has access to all the required land required for the project has been acquired.”
It has been discovered that East Africa is rapidly emerging as a new hydrocarbon hub, with an estimated 4.7 billion barrels of crude reserves and significant natural gas discoveries. The oil and gas industry development in the region has seen a new frontier open up in the last 10 years. The petroleum sector in Kenya is organised into three areas: upstream, midstream and downstream.
In Rwanda, the potential for the hydrocarbon resource lies in the North-Western part of the country and some parts of Lake Kivu. Tanzania has made substantial gas discoveries on the coastal shores of Songa Island and Mnazi Bay. Rwanda has carried out major geophysical and geological surveys in the Lake Kivu region. So far, the country already extracts methane from Lake Kivu, which borders Lake Albert. Like other countries, Rwanda’s Policy has three elements: an upstream component, currently concerned with exploration for possible petroleum resources; the midstream component that deals with infrastructures such as pipelines, depots and the downstream part related to the importation of refined products.
The Petroleum sector in Tanzania has three elements: the upstream industry, midstream and downstream. The upstream component focuses on oil and gas exploration and production. So far large deposits of gas fields have been identified off the coast at Songa Songa and Mnazi Bay and these are in the process of being developed. Current natural gas reserves are estimated to be 2 trillion cubic feet. The midstream is said to be highly regulated in Tanzania, specifically, pipeline components.
Burundi has no local oil or natural gas sources, and neither are there any facilities for oil refining. But ongoing studies to explore the potential for hydrocarbons along Lake Tanganyika and Rusizi river indicate some potential for hydrocarbons in the region.
In Somalia, Soma Oil & Gas is advancing exploration efforts in two off-shore blocks, seeking further investment in seismic surveys.
South Sudan, meanwhile, contains the third-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa after Angola and Nigeria, estimated at 3.5 billion barrels. These reserves are found throughout the country, especially in the north, where oil production is concentrated. Currently, production levels stand at over 186,000 barrels per day (bpd). The Ministry of Petroleum had set an ambitious target of 350,000 to 400,000 bpd by the end of 2025.
Similarly, in Uganda, oil discovery was finally made in Western Uganda in 2006 after 17 years of exploration.
However, be that as it may, it is only Uganda among its East African peers gearing up and looking set to deliver the first-ever commercial oil production in East Africa. “The National Oil and Gas Policy, 2008 successfully stirred the development of Uganda’s emerging oil and gas sector following the confirmation of commercial oil and gas resources in 2006 to date. The new policy was developed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development after a period of over 15 years since the 2008 framework,” Sebikari tells Pan African Visions.
Relaunched in April, Sebikari says the need to update arose to make it more responsive to the national and global trends in the energy sector. “Uganda is also transitioning from exploration to an imminent oil‑producing nation, alongside major changes in scale and complexity [in] the petroleum sector. While the 2008 framework focused on attracting exploration investment and establishing governance structures,” Sebikari argues, “it needed to be updated as Uganda advanced large upstream projects (Tilenga and Kingfisher), export infrastructure (EACOP) and plans for refining.
“The new policy [National Petroleum Policy, 2025] also reflects Uganda’s need to balance petroleum development with the energy transition, positioning oil and gas as a strategic enabler for industrialisation and energy security while supporting cleaner energy pathways, gas utilisation, efficiency, and alignment with long‑term low‑carbon development goals under Vision 2040.”
Then, “Uganda must adopt a deliberate strategy to ensure that the skills developed in the oil and gas sector are transferrable across the wider economy. This is especially critical given that workforce demand will significantly decline during the production phase. Oil and gas will remain a dominant source of energy for the next 50-70 years,” says the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs) at Kampala’s Victoria University, Prof Augustine Ifelebuegu. “However,” added the keynote speaker at the 3rd Annual Oil and Gas Skills Expo on 13 May, “Uganda must take deliberate steps to future-proof its petroleum workforce by ensuring these skills are transferrable to the broader economy.”
Employability in Uganda’s Oil and Gas Sector
“As Uganda moves towards commercial oil production, the skills acquired in the sector must be deliberately transferred to the wider economy to drive sustainable growth,” says PAU Executive Director, Ernest Rubondo at the Oil and Gas Skills Expo on 13 May. By the end of 2025, according to Rubondo, direct employment in the sector had grown beyond to over 21,000 personnel.
Beyond these direct jobs, the industry generated an estimated 50,000 indirect opportunities through supply chains, sub-contracting, transportation, hospitality and other support services linked to petroleum activities. In addition, induced employment was estimated at 140,000 jobs, reflecting broader economic opportunities created through increased household spending by workers and businesses benefiting from the sector. “Overall,” says Rubondo, “the total employment impact of the industry approached 200,000 jobs; underscoring its substantial contribution to national employment creation, income generation and Uganda’s economic growth.”
The number of people employed in Uganda’s oil and gas sector at the end of the quarter [by April 2026] was 21,072, of which 18,137 are Ugandans, according to Sebikari; accounting for 86%. The licensees directly employed 1,461 people, with 72% being Ugandans. Contractors and their sub-contractors employed 19,611 individuals, of whom 87% were Ugandans. Out of the total workforce, 6,631 employees were sourced from the local communities. “Skills are transferable to other oil and gas, energy, mining, and construction projects in and out of the country (including other sectors). This includes projects like the Kabalega Industrial Park (and related facilities), the Uganda Refinery Projects, Standard Gauge Railway, renewable energy projects, etc. The National Oil and Gas Talent Register is a platform that will support transfer of skills across different projects and sectors,” she tells this publication.
Cumulatively, according to Sebikari, the total value of contracts approved, Tier 1 to date, stands at US$7.632 billion, of which approximately US$2.289 billion (30%) has been awarded to Ugandan companies. By the end of March 2026, there were 2,626 companies registered on the National Supplier Database, representing 41 countries. Of these, 2,257 are Ugandan and 369 are foreign entities. “These figures exclude companies that were dropped from the register after the expiry of the three-year validity period,” she says.
EACOP, on 11 May, together with its Tier One contractor—China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Company Limited—celebrated the graduation of 20 of their Ugandan employees, including two women, from a specialised Automatic Welding Training Programme held at the Tilenga Main Camp in Buliisa District.
And now, on-the-mark-set, may the advent of East, Central and Horn of Africa’s first-ever commercial oil production be with the ‘Pearl of Africa’!
