Uganda NEWS

President Yoweri Museveni has said that Uganda will have to strengthen its waste disposal policy to address the environmental concerns on oil exploration activities. Museveni acknowledges that oil waste, if not properly handled, has the potential to pollute fragile ecosystems, but adds that concerns about greenhouse emissions from the exploration of oil and gas will not hold if the country clearly deals with the management of wastes from the nascent industry.

Uganda, Tanzania and French oil company Total are set to sign agreements Sunday on building a heated pipeline to carry crude oil from western Uganda to the Indian Ocean coast. Construction of the pipeline, which would be the world's longest at 897-miles, is expected to begin this year. Tanzania's new leader, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, is in Uganda to sign the documents, perhaps her most important executive action since her inauguration last month.

French oil supermajor, Total has agreed to purchase Tullow Oil’s full stake in jointly-held onshore oil fields in Uganda for $575 million. Tullow Oil yesterday informed that it is looking to raise $1 billion this year in a bid to diminish its $2.8 billion of debt. The deal is now subject to the two companies inking a final tax agreement with the Ugandan authorities and a go-ahead from Tullow’s shareholders.

CNOOC Ltd., the Chinese oil firm, on behalf of its partners- Total SA and Tullow Oil, will most likely begin production at its Kingfisher field by 2021. Three years is a considerable time to develop the Kingfisher field which is one of the several in the Albertine Graben, a territory assessed to hold 6.5 Bbbl of oil. CNOOC plans to pump 40,000 bbl of crude a day from the field.