Burning of
renewable resources
provides much of the
energy in Uganda, though the
government is attempting to become energy self-sufficient. While
much of the
hydroelectric potential
of the country is untapped, the government decision to expedite
creation of domestic petroleum capacity coupled with the discovery
of large petroleum reserves holds the promise of a significant
change in Uganda's status as an energy-importing country.
Background
In the 1980s,
charcoal and fuel wood met
more than 95% of Uganda's total energy needs. These further
provided 75% of commercial energy needs, while 21% was provided by
petroleum products. Only 3% of commercial energy was provided by
electricity on a grid. Attempts to
convert the population to
fuel-efficient
stoves proved difficult due to resistance to change. The
various wars of the 1980s resulted in the destruction of conductors
and transformers, though the
Uganda Electricity Board (UEB)
managed to extend power to a few new factories. Currently the
country is still plagued by frequent blackouts that last for many
hours, especially hard-hitting in the rural areas.
Hydroelectricity
Much of the
White Nile winds its way
through the country, though little of the hydroelectric potential
of the country is harnessed.
The poor maintenance during the politically
unstable 1980s further resulted in a drop in production at the Owen
Falls Dam (now Nalubaale Power Station
), at the mouth of the White Nile, from 635.5
million kilowatt-hours in 1986 to 609.9 million kilowatt-hours in
1987, with six of ten generators broken by the end of 1988.
A 200 MW extension to Nalubaale in 2000 raised total production to
380 MW, cementing Uganda's status as the major energy producer in
East Africa.
The
planned $550 million dam at Bujagali Falls
has been plagued with problems. It has been
heavily criticized for being unnecessarily destructive to the
environment and forcing the displacement of a large number of
residents. The
World Bank suspended its
support for the project in 2002, followed by the pullout the
following year of US-based contractor
AES. A downstream sluice dam at
Karuma Falls is less controversial but
repercussions from the Bujagali troubles have slowed progress
towards actual construction.
Oil and natural gas
Uganda is
highly vulnerable to oil price shocks as it imports almost all of
its 7000 bbl/day of oil (2004 figure) from the Kenyan
refinery in
Mombasa
, which in turns imports crude
oil from abroad. In 1995, the governments of Kenya and Uganda
agreed to investigate the possibility of extending the
Mombasa-Eldoret
pipeline a
further 320 km to Kampala. According to the Managing
Director of the
Kenya Pipeline
Company, the $97 million pipeline would provide 1.2 million
cubic meters in its first year of operation. A bio-code programme
was implemented in 2000, which allows authorities to determine if
an end user is using officially imported petroleum products. The
government reported a drop in diluted and adulterated samples taken
from gas stations from 20% in December 2000 to 1.5% in September
2001.
By the early 2000s, Uganda was seeking domestic petroleum reserves
in response to rising oil prices.
In September 2002, Heritage Oil Corporation of
Canada
announced the first exploratory well, in Block 3,
located in the Semiliki Valley in
western Uganda, in the hopes of confirming seismic studies showing
of oil in the basin. In June 2006,
Hardman Resources of
Australia discovered
oil
sands at
Waranga 1, Waranga 2 and
Mputa. President
Yoweri Museveni announced that he expected
production of 6,000 to by 2009. He further announced that a
mini-refinery would be set up to produce
diesel,
kerosene and
heavy
fuel oil.
In July
2007, Heritage Oil and Gas, one
of several companies prospecting around Lake
Albert raised its estimate for the Kingfisher well (block 3A)
in Bunyoro, Hoima District
, stating they thought it bigger than of
crude. Heritage's partner, London
-based
Tullow Oil, which had bought Hardman Resources, was more guarded, but
stated their confidence that the Albertine Basin as a whole was
over one billion barrels. The Kingfisher-1 well flowed of
30-32 API oil. This news came on the heels of Tullow's
July 11,
2007 report that the
Nzizi 2 appraisal well confirmed the presence
of per day of
natural gas. Heritage in a
report to its partners talked of Ugandan reserves of worth $7
billion as the "most exciting new play in sub-Saharan Africa in the
past decade." However, development will require a pipeline to the
coast, which will need $80 oil to justify.
Excitement was dampened by the deaths in
August
3 2007 of a Congolese soldier and Heritage
geologist in a clash on the lake.
Both the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
(DRC) and Uganda moved troops to the border.
This followed the detention by the DRC of four Ugandan soldiers it
claimed to be on their side of the border, and preceded the murder
of three Ugandan villagers by an incursion of the
Democratic Forces
for the Liberation of Rwanda, a
Hutu group
descended from those responsible for the
1994 genocide. Relations have been tense
since the discovery of oil, as both countries seek to clarify the
border delineation on the lake in their favor, in particular the
ownership of small
Rukwanzi Island.
Ugandan
foreign minister Sam Kutesa made an
emergency visit to Kinshasa
in an attempt to smooth tensions.
The
Economist magazine, noting that the DRC has assigned
exploration blocks on its side of the border, proposed that the
situation should sort itself amicably: Uganda needs a stable and
secure border in order to attract foreign investment developing the
oil reserves, while the cost of transporting the oil to the DRC's
sole port at Matadi
is so
prohibitive that the Congolese government is nearly obliged to seek
pipeline access through Uganda.
Notes and references
- "Uganda: Energy", U.S. Library of Congress via
countrystudies.us
- "Great Lakes Region: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and
Uganda" by the Energy Information
Administration, February 2004
- "Kenya-Uganda oil pipeline to ease petroleum
delivery" by Joseph Olanyo, 4 October 2005
- "Review of Uganda's oil industry",
gasandoil.com, April
18, 2002
- "Uganda becomes oil producer", afrol, 9 October 2006
- "Uganda to start petroleum production in 2009",
Xinhua,
8 October
2006
- " More oil, gas found" by Edris Kisambira,
East African Business Week,
16 July 2007
- "Congo and Uganda: Do you want to share or to
fight?", The Economist, 23 August 2007
See also
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