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Uganda names its crude oil today
The naming ceremony is part of President Museveni's visit to the Kingfisher Development Area in Kikuube District to inspect progress in Uganda’s oil and gas journey.
President Yoweri Museveni will today unveil the name of Uganda's crude oil. (File photo)
By: New Vision Journalist, Journalist @New Vision
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President Yoweri Museveni will today (September 2) unveil the name of Uganda's crude oil during a ceremony at the Kingfisher production facility on the shores of Lake Albert.
The Kingfisher production facility is where CNOOC Uganda Limited operates one of the country's two upstream developments. The naming ceremony is part of President Museveni's visit to the Kingfisher Development Area in Kikuube District to inspect progress in Uganda’s oil and gas journey.
Officials led by Energy Minister Dr Monica Musenero have been in the Albertine Graben on a working visit ahead of the President's arrival.
The small step in naming the oil is a giant leap in turning 20 years of discovery into a product the world's refiners can identify, price and buy. Crude oil is bought and sold by grade, and every grade carries a name and published identifiers which set out its density, sulphur content and refining yield. For instance, Brent comes from the North Sea, Ghana's crude is Jubilee, named for the field that began producing in 2010, while Senegal's Sangomar came onstream in 2024.
Officials led by Energy Minister Dr Monica Musenero have been in the Albertine Graben on a working visit ahead of the President's arrival.
The small step in naming the oil is a giant leap in turning 20 years of discovery into a product the world's refiners can identify, price and buy. Crude oil is bought and sold by grade, and every grade carries a name and published identifiers which set out its density, sulphur content and refining yield. For instance, Brent comes from the North Sea, Ghana's crude is Jubilee, named for the field that began producing in 2010, while Senegal's Sangomar came onstream in 2024.
Until a grade is named, it cannot be quoted on a trading screen, marketed to refineries, or written onto a cargo manifest. Uganda's crude is waxy and low in sulphur and will be carried by the heated 1,443-kilometre East African Crude Oil Pipeline to Tanga on the Tanzanian coast.
The Lake Albert basin holds an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of oil in place, of which between 1.4 and 1.7 billion barrels are considered recoverable. The Tilenga project, operated by TotalEnergies, and Kingfisher, operated by CNOOC, are together expected to produce about 230,000 barrels a day at peak. Kingfisher's central processing facility is built to handle 40,000 barrels a day.
Commercial quantities were confirmed in the Albertine Graben in 2006, and the production timetable has moved more than once since. However, officials say the EACOP pipeline is more than 90 percent ready, and the naming ceremony is seen as the first step in the last mile to Uganda becoming a commercial oil producer.
The Lake Albert basin holds an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of oil in place, of which between 1.4 and 1.7 billion barrels are considered recoverable. The Tilenga project, operated by TotalEnergies, and Kingfisher, operated by CNOOC, are together expected to produce about 230,000 barrels a day at peak. Kingfisher's central processing facility is built to handle 40,000 barrels a day.
Commercial quantities were confirmed in the Albertine Graben in 2006, and the production timetable has moved more than once since. However, officials say the EACOP pipeline is more than 90 percent ready, and the naming ceremony is seen as the first step in the last mile to Uganda becoming a commercial oil producer.