London, United Kingdom | AFP | Major oil producers except Mexico agreed to cut output in May and June by 10 million barrels per day, OPEC said Friday, after marathon talks to counter a collapse in prices. The agreement, which reduces production to eight million bpd from July to December, depends …
Read More »Delays and shattered hopes: Uganda still waiting for oil riches
BULIISA, Uganda | AFP | It was the promise of oil — billions of barrels of black gold, discovered locked beneath Lake Albert — and the riches to follow that brought electricity to Buliisa. Roads, piped water, and other unthinkable luxuries came next, as the poor farming village on the great …
Read More »World oil prices claw back ground after crash
Singapore, Singapore | AFP | Oil prices surged more than six percent in Asian trade Tuesday following heavy losses a day earlier after top exporter Saudi Arabia began a price war with Russia. West Texas Intermediate was trading up 6.1 percent at more than $33 a barrel while Brent crude …
Read More »The paradox of Uganda’s oil curse
How our government built and has now almost destroyed the country’s oil industry THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Uganda’s upstream oil industry is dead. Ok, let me admit this is a bit of an exaggeration. It is more appropriate to say it is in a coma …
Read More »UNOC to invest $840m in oil and gas sector
Uganda discovered oil in 2006 but disagreements between the government and oil companies have stalled its development Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) plans to invest $840million in joint infrastructure projects in the country’s oil and gas sector, said its Chief Executive Officer, Proscovia Nabbanja. …
Read More »Court clears ‘presidential handshake’ beneficiaries
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The High Court Civil Division has rejected findings and recommendations of the Parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that people who benefited from the SH 6 billion presidential oil handshake refund the money. The committee, which was led by Bugweri legislator …
Read More »Without reforms, Gulf oil wealth could vanish by 2034: IMF
Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | Energy-addicted Gulf states must undertake much deeper reforms or risk seeing their wealth drain away in 15 years as global demand for oil slides, the IMF warned Thursday. “At the current fiscal stance, the region’s financial wealth could be depleted by 2034,” the International …
Read More »Painful tales dominate long wait for Uganda’s first oil
Masindi, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | At Nyamasonga village, Bugahya County in Hoima district, waste management firm EnviroServ seems to run by the script. The G4S security guard at the gate reminds visitors to disinfect their hands and drive at 10 kilometres per hour once they enter. Inside, men in …
Read More »Nigeria remands former Justice Minister in custody over oil scandal
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | A Nigerian court on Thursday remanded a former justice minister accused of corruption in custody pending a bail hearing. Mohammed Adoke who appeared in the high court in the nation’s capital Abuja has been charged over a $1.3 billion dollar oil scandal involving international majors …
Read More »‘Uganda’s oil sector slowed down by political interference’
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s oil sector is dominated by political interference, with many players forced to have the president’s say before making any important decisions, researchers have said. Writing a chapter in a recently published book on Uganda’s oil sector, Dr Badru Bukenya, an academic at Makerere …
Read More »