Uganda’s oil industry was recently thrown in disarray after Total E&P suspended all activities on the oil pipeline resulting from a tax dispute with Tullow, a major partner. Tullow pulled out of the negotiations citing frustration to sell a part of its stake. Advertisement
President Museveni has said he will in the next two years use Uganda’s oil to fund construction of road projects if donor partners fail to raise sufficient funds to fund them.
Speaking at the
signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that seeks to bring peace and
development in Turkana, West Pokot and Karamoja, President Museveni told
United Nations officials that they had two years to build a road
connecting Uganda to Ethiopia, short of which Uganda would fund it using
oil money.
The road, which will connect Uganda to Ethiopia through
Karamoja to Turkana’s main oil producing town of Lodwar, will facilitate
trade between the two countries.
“The United Nations doesn’t
have a lot of money but I would like them to use their advocacy
abilities to get us money to build a road connecting Uganda to Ethiopia
through Kenya,” President Museveni said, noting that the request would
only stand for two years, after which Uganda would simply build the
road.
“Once my oil comes out in two years, I will build the road
myself,” he said in reference to UN’s failure to raise money for the
road.
Asked whether the President wasn’t being over ambitious,
Siddharth Chatterjee, the UN resident coordinator to Kenya, said these
grand plans were necessary to deliver results to these most marginalised
communities.
However, the President’s announcement is two years
ahead of the 2023 deadline when Uganda, Tanzania and venture partners
expect to have completed the construction of the heated pipeline for
transportation of oil through the port of Tanga in Tanzania.
It is
unclear how Uganda will start oil production within the new two years,
when the country failed to pull off earlier deadlines.
