Government will delay the announcement of the lead investor for the country’s crude oil refinery for least another month, Energy minister Irene Muloni has said.
The ministry of Energy had expected to announce the refinery investor before end of this month. But Muloni says the successful bidder will be revealed at the end of next month.
She says 40 companies expressed interest in the refinery after Russian consortium Rostec Global Resources pulled out. She explains that eight out of the 40 companies have been engaged and that three of the eight could be selected to take up the refinery work.
RT Global Resources had been selected in February 2015 as the preferred bidder for the financing and construction of the $ 4 billion (about Shs 14 trillion) greenfield oil refinery.
RT Global Resources had beaten three other contenders – South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction Group, China’s Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPPB) and Japan’s Maruben Corporation. RT Global Resources however pulled out at the last minute leading a fresh search for a company to build and operate the refinery.
The minister said in an interview that she is optimistic the investor to be selected will be able to complete the work within the next three years to meet the new timeline for commercial oil production by 2020. It has been hoped that RT Global Resources would complete the work by 2018.
Muloni says the government has adopted a fast-track mode to ensure that first oil comes out of the ground by 2020. The refinery is one of the needed infrastructure needed to move the nascent oil sector into production.
Muloni reveals that special arrangements have been made with in government and other partners to ensure that prioritized activities are funded even under the proposed budgetary cuts in the coming financial year.
“As government and partners, we have sat on the round table and determined which routes, which roads we are going to use to support the processes. Improvement on those roads is going on but more work is going to be done. We have 11 key roads and bridges. Those roads total to about 600km within the Albertine region to transport logistical requirements”
She says the government of Uganda is also collaborating with authorities in Kenya and Tanzania to facilitate the ferrying of equipment for the pipeline and refinery construction.
Uganda expects to import over 800,000 tonnes of material needed for the refinery, pipeline and central processing facility. There are also plans to construct an airport at Kabaale in Hoima as part of the support infrastructure for oil and gas industry.