Source: Reuters<\/p>\n
Uganda will sign a memorandum of understanding on Thursday with Britain’s Tullow Oil, France’s Total and China’s CNOOC, an Energy Ministry spokesman said, in a vital step towards starting oil production in the country<\/p>\n
East Africa’s third-largest\u00a0economy\u00a0struck hydrocarbon deposits in 2006 but commercial production has been delayed and is not expected to start until 2016 at the earliest. Analysts blame the delay on negotiations over a planned refinery.<\/p>\n
The pact is expected to detail facilities that need to be put in place, such as pipelines and a refinery, and flow rates for oil fields, before actual production can start.<\/p>\n
“It’s the signing of the MoU between the Ugandan government and the three oil companies,” ministry spokesman Bukenya-Matovu Yusuf told Reuters, after the ministry issued an invitation to a news conference.<\/p>\n
Energy Minister Irene Muloni said last month that developing Uganda’s oil fields and building infrastructure would cost between $15 billion and $22 billion, although there were plans to try to reduce that.<\/p>\n
Uganda has agreed to build a pipeline that will run to Kenya’s planned new Indian Ocean port of Lamu, which is expected to become an export terminal for crude from Uganda, Kenya and other regional states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"