President Museveni Unveils Uganda’s Crude Oil name

As Uganda nears final commercial development stage of its oil exploitation, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has today unveiled the brand name of Uganda’s Crude Oil “Pearl Sweet Petroleum” a distinct identity on the global oil market, clearly reflecting its Ugandan origin while communicating its qualities and ensuring traceability and market recognition.

The brand naming of Uganda’s crude oil is intended to give the country’s petroleum resource and President Museveni noted that the milestone achievements registered in Uganda’s oil and gas sector are a testament to the Government’s robust preparatory interventions, anchored in deliberate policy guidelines that have streamlined and strengthened the sector’s operations.

Uganda’s crude oil name “Pearl Sweet Petroleum”, with the slogan “Born of the Pearl”, draws from the country’s identity as the Pearl of Africa embodying key national attributes associated with quality, purity, strength, resilience and experience, while giving the country’s petroleum resource a distinctive identity on the global oil market.

While speaking at the naming ceremony in Kikuube District today September 2nd, President Museveni stated that Uganda’s oil Refinery ambition will mark the attainment of the desired ultimate profitability for the country’s oil resources through economies of scale attributed to domestic production, save the country from transit charges, undo the US 2 billion dollar import Petroleum bill among other costs.

He further noted that the ongoing Petroleum exploitation program will generate over 80MW of electricity costed at USD 30 million annually and also offer Liquidified Petroleum Gas for cooking costed at approximately US 7 million dollars annually.

The President commended the Governments of China and France for interesting their home companies to invest in Uganda and rallied for more strategic investments and commended the speed of implementation for oil exploitation works in Oil grabine area and calls for more expediting to attain the first oil target.

President Museveni said that the Oil Refinery project will actualize that dream and anchor Uganda into producer countries for petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, Liquidified Petroleum and other oil  byproducts and said that the refinery remains Uganda’s major focus even though with the ongoing East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline Project (EACOP).

President Museveni highlighted Uganda’s capacity building journey for expertize in the oil sector that has started to payoff and guided on durable investment initiatives for Uganda’s oil proceeds and revealed more unexploited oil reserves in different areas accross uganda beyond the Albertine oil grabine upon which government plans to scale up oil exploitation initiatives for maximum benefit of the country which include Karamoja basin, Lake Kyoga basin and Kiboga – Kyankwanzi area.

President Museveni directed the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities to map out historical areas attached to Uganda’s oil exploitation journey and initiate their conservation plans for tourism and educational purposes.

The Prime Minister Rt Hon Robinah Nabbanja quantifies the direct impact of Kingfisher oilfield Development area works to Bunyoro sub region and beyond.

She listed the Kabale International Airport, Kabale Industrial Park, Extended team roads reach on top of the AFCON aided elevations including Hoima City Stadium, elevated Hoima Regional Referral hospital and vast direct socioeconomic support funding initiatives to the people.

While speaking at the same event, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Dr Monica Musenero noted that Uganda is crossing an important threshold in socioeconomic transformation attributed to the landmark achievements in the oil exploitation project as she highlighted Uganda’s oil investment spectrum and projections whose ultimate objective remains the establishment of the refinery to aid other chain of developments.

Minister Musenero listed Uganda’s priorities for the oil development sector and explained the value and significance of brand naming Uganda’s oil.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development Engineer Eng Irene Batebe highlighted stakes by different stakeholders in Uganda’s ongoing oil developments at Kingfisher with Total Energies at 56.6%, UNOC 15% and CNOC at 28.3%.

Eng Batebe also spoke about the to progress of Tirenga project, East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP),  Refinery prospects and the impact of the Kingfisher project.

The new Chinese Ambassador to Uganda Wu Guangrong said that his country is committed to sustain progressive interstate mutual relations for development in different aspects including oil and gas.

The President of CNOOC Uganda Limited Liu Xiangdong said that the current status of Kingfisher oilfield shows how far the project has come with immense results of many years of hard work, partnership and commitment reflecting support and guidance accorded to it by the Government of Uganda.

The Kingfisher oilfield project is designed to produce approximately 40,000 barrels of oil per day with 22 of the planned 31 wells established on the four well pads that are already complete, comprising of the Central Processing Facility, a feeder line, camps and a supply base and Kingfisher oilfield Development area also has 20,000 tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) reserves.

Kikuube District Chairperson Paddy Kisembo has commended President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for ensuring the realization of the national Oil exploitation dream beyond speculation by anti- development actors and thanked government for granting land titles to people in the oil Albertine region and raised concerns of fishing communities for consideration.