Search results

Minister of energy and mineral development Irene Muloni on 8 May launched Uganda’s second licensing round offering five blocks of relinquished acreage in the Albertine Graben. Two of the blocks, Turaco and Ngaji, were offered in the first round in 2015.Speaking at the East African Petroleum Conference in Mombasa, Muloni said the bidding process would start with a request for qualification process, inviting interested companies to submit applications within the next six months.

Tullow Oil says it is now expecting a final investment decision (FID) on the Lake Albert development in Uganda in H2 this year. In a 25 April trading update, the company said the development had made “good technical and operational progress” in Q1. Tullow cited a target of mid-year when it announced its 2018 results in February, while energy minister Irene Muloni mentioned early 2019 in comments at Africa Oil Week last November.

President Yoweri Museveni formally commissioned the 183MW Isimba hydropower plant on 21 March. Isimba, which has been operating since the end of December, was built by China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE) through a $567.7m contract 85% funded by the Export-Import Bank of China. Construction was delayed when cracks became visible in the dam in 2016, causing leaks and flooding of the powerhouse and destroying the coffer dam.

The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group, has signed a $27m loan agreement for the 16.5MW Kikagati run-of-river hydropower project. The plant, which is under construction, is located on the Kagera River on the border between Uganda and Tanzania. The anticipated 113GWh/yr will be sold to the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company, which will sell half on to Tanzania.The Netherlands’ FMO was lead arranger for the senior debt, signing its $27m portion in February.

Tullow Oil says it has “agreed the principles” of a capital gains tax payment to the Ugandan government on the farm-down of its assets. The company said in its 2018 results statement on 13 February that tax payments would be phased and partly linked to project progress. A final investment decision (FID) on the upstream development is held up by a government demand for a $167m tax payment on the $900m farm-down deal.

Ministers from Uganda and Tanzania have met for talks aimed at advancing the East African crude oil pipeline project, which has made little progress since its formal launch in August 2017.The 25 January meeting agreed that a host government agreement for the project should be signed by the end of June detailing the rights and obligations of the parties – the two governments and the upstream partners Total, CNOOC and Tullow Oil.

Kampala-based off-grid solar company SolarNow has closed a $9m receivables financing facility arranged by specialist debt arranger SunFunder. The facility used SunFunder’s structured asset finance instrument, with money raised from co-lenders responsAbility and Oikocredit.

The Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL), has said the 183MW Isimba dam is ready for commissioning at the end of January. UEGCL corporate affairs manager Simon Kasyate told the Daily Monitor the dam’s four Kaplan turbine generator units were running by 10 January when the UEGCL board concluded a routine appraisal of the project.Isimba is being built by China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE) through a $567.7m contract 85% funded by the Export-Import Bank of China.

President Yoweri Museveni on 9 January formally commissioned the 24MW Kabulasoke solar photovoltaic plant. The plant, which began commercial operations on 30 December, is located at the Namulaba and Butiti villages in the central Gomba district, and was developed by Germany-based Xsabo Group, owned by Ugandan-born David Alobo, with Great Lakes Africa Energy (GLAE), which came in as lead financial and technical investor, replacing another German company, Mola Solar Systems Ltd.

Tullow Oil hopes to complete a farm-down of its Uganda assets in H1 2019 once a tax dispute with the government is settled. Tullow said in November it was hoping to resolve the issue by the end of 2018, paving the way for a final investment decision (FID) on the upstream oil development in H1 2019. In a 16 January trading statement, Tullow said the farm-down was now expected to complete in H1 2019.

Uganda plans to launch a second licensing round in May, offering relinquished areas and new acreage, notably in Lake Albert. Energy minister Irene Muloni told a press briefing during Africa Oil Week in Cape Town a technical team was working on demarcating the blocks in preparation for a launch at the East African Petroleum Conference in Mombasa in May. The blocks on offer will vary in size from 600km2 to 1,200km2, Muloni said. All have some 2D data, and some have 3D and well data.

Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited is seeking bids by 23 January for the design, supply and installation of the Kole-Gulu-Nebbi-Arua 132kV transmission line, related substations and the Kole switching station in north-west Uganda. The project is being funded from the World Bank’s Grid Expansion and Reinforcement Project. The tender is divided into three lots, and bidders may bid for one or several contracts. Work is expected to take 24 months.

KenolKobil announced an agreement with Delta Petroleum on 7 November to buy 23 service stations in Uganda and ten in Rwanda. On conclusion of the transaction, KenolKobil’s total retail network will rise to 433 stations, of which 200 are in Kenya. Kobil Uganda’s retail outlets will increase to 56 stations while Kobil Rwanda will have 61 stations under its control. The value of the transactions was not disclosed.

The 9.6MW Nkusi hydroelectric plant, part of the Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariff programme, began operating on 11 October. The $23m plant is located on the Nkusi River in Kibaale and Hoima districts, close to the Lower Nkusi hydroelectric facility and is expected to generate 46GWh/yr. It was developed and is owned by Norway’s PA Technical Services Ltd.

Ugandan developer Xsabo Group has launched construction of a 25MW solar park at Kabulasoke in the central district of Gomba. Vice-president Edward Ssekandi laid the first of the 68,000 modules in a ceremony on 3 October. President Yoweri Museveni is expected to commission the $24.5m project in November, with the Buganda King Ronald Mutebi expected to lay the last module. Xsabo Group plans to commission a total of 150MW of solar power around the country at a cost of $199m.