Uganda to issue new oil exploration licences in FY 2025/26

KAMPALA, September 11, 2024 – Uganda plans to issue new oil and gas exploration licences in the fiscal year beginning in July 2025, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The report cited Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija as saying the move is intended to boost hydrocarbons investments and economic growth.

Details on the structure in which the licences would be offered were not provided.

In June, the government announced it would double spending in the industry, with investments primarily directed towards the country’s most vital piece of oil export infrastructure, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

Spending will total USD 246 million in the year ending June 2025, compared to around USD 120 million in the previous year.

Uganda is estimated to hold around 6.5 billion barrels of reserves, around 1.4 billion barrels of which are recoverable.

The country is anticipating first production from its star oil province, the Albertine Graben, next year.

Last month, Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu said that, decades after finding oil in the prolific Lake Albert region, the government had launched new exploration in the country’s north and northeast.

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