Parliament has approved a proposal authorising the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) to borrow up to USD 2 billion (UGX 7.12 trillion) from Vitol Bahrain E.C. (VBA), a global trader in crude oil and petroleum products supply and marketing. The financing marks a decisive shift toward non-traditional financing to unlock oil-linked and national infrastructure projects amid tightening global capital for fossil fuel investments. The proposal presented by the Ministry of Finance in its capacity as a shareholder in UNOC builds on an existing commercial relationship between UNOC and Vitol Bahrain. In August 2023, Government, through UNOC, entered into a Petroleum…
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Emmanuel Mugagga is the Chief Financial Officer of the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and Winner of the Strategy Execution Award at the 9th edition of the Chief Financial Officer Awards 2025– an initiative of ACCA Uganda and Deloitte Uganda. At UNOC, an institution entrusted with managing Uganda’s commercial interests across the petroleum value chain, Mugagga sits at the intersection of a sector where decisions span decades, capital runs into billions, and outcomes shape national destiny and strategy is only as powerful as its execution. In this conversation with CEO East Africa’s Paul Murungi, Mugagga reflects on his journey into…
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As one drives into Hoima City, the urban heart of Uganda’s oil dreams, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary town. The city has become a magnet for…
Uganda’s oil ambitions face a critical stress test at the Kasuruban oil block. By handing it to Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), government signaled that national control must sit at…
The Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) was established as a limited liability company under the 2013 Petroleum Act more than 10 years ago. Of course, the oil sector has seen heightened activity in the last five, but at the end of it, UNOC has been the silent pusher, ensuring that Ugandans get the best bargain from a resource they have waited for far too long. Beyond this, UNOC has also sanitised the local oil marketing space occupied by speculators, who had long exaggerated pump prices for a profit. Uganda consumes close to 7 million litres of fuel daily, with more…
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The Auditor General, Edward Akol, has noted with concern that the Tilenga and KingFisher Development Area oil projects in western Uganda are behind schedule in hitting completion targets, with some activities also facing a funding crisis. The Auditor noted that whereas the Uganda commercial oil production plans had set a target of drilling 451 oil wells, the Field Development Plan (FDP) designated only 177 (approximately 39%) as necessary for the initial phase of oil production targeted for November 2025, and which was later projected to 2027. However by the time of the compiling of the Auditor’s report in November 2024,…
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Uganda’s Energy Ministry Permanent Secretary, Irene Batebe has, in an exclusive interview with the CEO Magazine, revealed that government is on course with Dubai- based Alpha MBM Investments to have agreements signed ‘soon’ for the financing and construction of the oil refinery at Kabalega Industrial Park in Hoima District. The government oil refinery investment deal is under the belt of Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) which handles the country’s commercial interests in the petroleum sector. Tony Otoa, the UNOC Corporate Affairs Director said the details of the deal will be shared after financial closure, dismissing reports of an online article…
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Otoa is now leaving Stanbic Business Incubator Ltd to take up a new Chief Corporate Affairs Officer role at the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC)⏤ a wholly government of Uganda-owned company that runs the government’s commercial interests in the upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas sectors. He joins UNOC just in time- as the country ramps up activities towards first oil, but also amidst a thickening anti-fossils energy transition agenda, itself oiled by climate change. He is however not an outsider in the mainstream oil and gas business, having been, between September 2013 – June 2018, the Public Affairs…
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By Peninah Aheebwa The Oil and Gas sector in Uganda has progressed to the development phase with an expected total investment of US$ 20 billion before the production of the first oil due in 2025. This investment is being made mainly in developing infrastructure for producing petroleum from the discovered fields and putting in place the facilities required to commercialise the petroleum to be produced (refining and pipelines) together with the requisite support infrastructure like the roads and the second international airport. National content is at the project level, and its target objective is based on how much of the…
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The government of Kenya, through its energy sector regulators, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority of Kenya (EPRA) has finally granted the the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) a petroleum products importation license. The license was handed over to UNOC’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Proscovia Nabbanja, by Daniel Kiptoo Bargoria, the Director General of the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) in Nairobi Kenya, yesterday, March 28th 2024. The license is a major prerequisite for UNOC to import fuel through Kenya. Under Uganda’s new Petroleum Supply (Amendment) Act, 2023, UNOC, a government-owned company was given powers as the main importer…
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