Uganda battles to revive oil project
The energy ministry’s aim to achieve FID in early 2020 looks ambitious
The Ugandan government claims to have found a solution to the impasse blocking development of its huge oil production and pipeline export project. However, there is little sign of an early resolution with companies over the dispute, ostensibly over a tax issue but also the development’s wider commercial framework. Efforts by partners Total, Cnooc and Tullow Oil to develop an estimated 1.7bn bl of recoverable resources in the Albertine Graben around Lake Albert in western Uganda have suffered a series of setbacks since Tullow made the first commercial oil discoveries in 2006. Most recently—despite months of wrangling with the Ugandan authorities over the treatment of tax—Tullow was unable t
Also in this section
16 January 2026
The country’s global energy importance and domestic political fate are interlocked, highlighting its outsized oil and gas powers, and the heightened fallout risk
16 January 2026
The global maritime oil transport sector enters 2026 facing a rare convergence of crude oversupply, record newbuild deliveries and the potential easing of several geopolitical disruptions that have shaped trade flows since 2022
15 January 2026
Rebuilding industry, energy dominance and lower energy costs are key goals that remain at odds in 2026
14 January 2026
Chavez’s socialist reforms boosted state control but pushed knowledge and capital out of the sector, opening the way for the US shale revolution
