Petroleum Authority of Uganda opens new oil suppliers registration

The Petroleum Authority of Uganda, the body charged with monitoring and regulating oil and gas activities in the country, has opened the 2019 registration for the National Supplier Database. The exercise will commence formally on Saturday.

Companies providing a range of services, from catering, clearing and forwarding, logistics, to security, are listed on the roster for easy access and consideration during procurement activities.

While speaking at the launch of the registration process, Ernest Rubondo, the authority’s executive director said the number of companies registered on the database has increased from 513 in 2017 to 1,712 in 2018.

“This is expected to increase even more in 2019,” Mr Rubondo said.

He added that the country’s oil and gas industry is “at a critical stage” with the ongoing reviews of technical front end engineering designs for the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil projects and designs for the East African Crude Oil Export Pipeline.

“These studies involved an extensive engineering and project cost valuation process to plan for the required facilities and describe the project economics,” he said.

“The studies also defined the specific nature, quality and quantities of goods and services required for these projects, together with the possible sources including those that will be sourced from Uganda.”

Projections show that Cnooc, Tullow, and Total – the three joint venture partners licenced to develop Uganda’s oil resources – will invest approximately Shs22 trillion ($7b) in activities leading to production. This is in addition to the $4bn to be spent on constructing an oil refinery and $3.5bn on a crude oil pipeline to the Tanzanian coast.

Mr Rubondo also asked suppliers who registered in earlier rounds to update their contact details as proof that they are active or else they will be removed after three years.

The database was rolled out in July last year. The authority expects to develop it into a centralised joint qualification and e-marketplace for all oil related procurement.