Uganda: $500 Million Spent on Petroleum Imports
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New Vision (Kampala)
4 August 2008
Posted to the web 5 August 2008
Ibrahim Kasita
Kampala
UGANDA imported about 850 million litres of petroleum products worth $500m (sh820b) last year, the energy state minister has disclosed.
Kamanda Bataringaya said East Africa imports petroleum products worth about $2b, which is 20% of the the region's import bill.
He said this decade's oil prices were the highest in history, rising from as low as $10 per barrel in 1999 to over $140 per barrel currently.
Bataringaya said the petroleum expenditure takes a sizeable portion of Uganda's export earnings.
He said the Government was supporting petroleum exploration with an aim of diversifying the energy supply mix.
"Utilisation of petroleum resources could serve several goals related to the national economy," he said, while presenting the National Oil and Gas Policy at a public hearing for the proposed early production scheme at Kaiso-Tonya in Hoima.
"These include offsetting the country's import bill, earning of foreign exchange through exports to the Great Lakes Region and provision of employment."
Bataringaya said the early production scheme would provide heavy fuel oil that would address the power shortage.
He said the scheme would also produce diesel and kerosene, which would offset importation of some petroleum products.
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"In the medium and long-term as reserves continue to be established, plans to put in place a large scale refinery are being pursued."
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