The first commercial oil production drilling operation in Uganda will soon be put into motion.
Since last year, the nation has been eager to advance its oil plans and has inked a few agreements to that end. Uganda and its partners TotalEnergies and Tanzania had a disagreement with the European Union last year over a pipeline project that the EU deemed to be environmentally detrimental. The nation insisted on continuing with its oil exploration despite this. An affiliate of Australia’s DGR Global and another oil company inked production-sharing agreements (PSA) for two oil exploration blocks only this month (DGR.AX). reaffirming its commitment to turning oil become a significant source of income for the nation.
“The drilling of the development and production wells for the Kingfisher oil reserves began today, marking another milestone and bringing the project one step closer to first oil,” the Ugandan Petroleum Authority announced through Twitter.
The group also said that Yoweri Museveni, the president of the nation, will preside over the launch “at the Spudding (drilling) site in the Kingfisher project area, one of the nation’s two commercial oil production zones.
Uganda hopes to eventually generate 230,000 barrels of crude oil per day with this project. The rig will be used to drill a total of 31 wells in Kingfisher, according to Uganda’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, while three further rigs that will be deployed later in the Tilenga project area will drill a total of 426 producing wells.
More than 20 years ago, Uganda has found enormous oil deposits that the nation had been sluggish to exploit. However, the Russia-Ukraine conflict-induced energy rush in 2022 offered a chance to close a market gap that Uganda couldn’t pass up.
Additionally, a lack of infrastructure prevented the nation from engaging in full exploration. However, it appears that this problem has been resolved.