Uganda will not begin oil production this year as originally planned, a government spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday, delaying a long-standing target to extract crude from its western fields.
“Due to unforeseen challenges, we are unable to meet the above target,” said Patricia Litho, spokesperson for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development. She did not specify the reasons behind the delay or provide a new timeline for the start of production.
Uganda discovered commercial petroleum reserves nearly two decades ago in the Albertine Rift Basin, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, disagreements with international oil firms over taxes and development strategy, along with slow progress in infrastructure construction, have repeatedly pushed back the production timeline.
The oil fields, estimated to hold 6 billion barrels of crude reserves, are being developed by TotalEnergies from France and CNOOC from China. These companies, in collaboration with the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments, are also constructing a $5 billion pipeline to transport crude to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast for export.