Oil Uganda, a subsidiary of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), on Thursday, September 17, 2020, held a Social Accountability dialogue at Trisek Hotel in Hoima, with youth, aimed at discussing the impact of oil exploration and extraction on the entire Hoima Sub-region (referred to as the Albertine Graben) to the local communities, wildlife and ecosystem.
During the Dialogue, youth put Local Government (LG) leaders to the task to explain what actions they have taken to address the several issues they have raised in different fora regarding the oil and gas sector vis-a-vis its impact on the Hoima sub-region and entire Albertine Graben.
What was prevalent during the Dialogue is that the Youth are advocating for participation and meaningful inclusion in as far as the allocation of oil revenues is concerned.
It should be noted that ahead of the development phase of the oil and gas sector, young people, especially from the Albertine Region, are eager to know more about recent developments in the sector and how they can benefit directly from the sector.
Over the last weekend, the governments of Uganda and Tanzania, and Joint Venture Partner Total E&P signed the historic Host Government Agreement for the development of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline that paves way for the Final Investment Decision (FID).
In August 2020, Uganda was admitted to the Extractives Transparency Initiative (EITI) making it an implementing country.
Officials from Oil Uganda revealed that Thursday’s Social Accountability dialogue provides a platform for youth to better appreciate these developments and determine where they stand in as far as their participation is concerned.
According to the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, there are currently two companies carrying out oil and gas exploration in Uganda i.e. Armour Energy Limited (AEL) and Oranto Petroleum Limited (OPL).
Armour Energy Limited was issued an exploration license for Kanywataba Contract Area in September 2017.
They have so far carried out surface soil geochemical survey, reprocessed existing 2D seismic data over the Kanywataba area and completed carrying out Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) study to enable them to acquire additional 100-line kilometres of new 2D seismic data. This new seismic data acquisition was underway before the interruption due to COVID-19.
Oranto Petroleum Limited was issued an exploration license in October 2017 over the Ngassa Shallow Play and Ngassa Deep Play Contract Areas. OPL has so far reprocessed existing 2D and 3D vintage seismic data in the area acquired and processed 326-line kilometre, and completed petro-physical studies on the previously wells in the area. The company is currently finalizing studies on the lake drilling solution to enable the drilling of an exploration well on the block.