Uganda expects investments worth about $10bn after Total Energies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation make final investment decisions on their oil and gas projects. The final decisions will be announced on Tuesday.
The announcement ceremony will be held at the Kololo Independence Grounds and will be attended by the presidents of Uganda and Tanzania, Yoweri Museveni and Samia Hassan Suluhu, and TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanné.
A final investment decision is the point in a project when the company or companies operating the project sanction its future development. The final decision means the project companies have approved financing for the project and intend to proceed to the engineering, procurement, and construction stages.
The oil companies are expected to invest at least $10bn in developing the projects. The projects include the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields whose development is estimated at $6.7bn, and the oil export pipeline whose execution is projected at $3.6bn.
Tilenga and Kingfisher are expected to produce 230,000 barrels of oil per day at peak production.
Uganda’s shareholding in the projects is managed by the state-owned Uganda National Oil Company.
The final investment decisions bring Uganda closer to joining the league of oil-producing African countries. The government announced the discovery of commercial oil volumes 15 years ago, but the journey to production has been marked by protracted negotiations and postponements; today, the most optimistic date for commercial oil production is 2025.
According to data from the sector regulator, the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, contracts worth $6bn for the projects are currently under review. Other contracts worth $167m have been recommended for awarding.
The oil projects are expected to generate some 14,000 direct jobs and 45,000 indirect jobs.
