Chevron specialist to speak to oil and gas private sector

A leading oil and gas expert will today speak to Uganda's oil and gas private sector about the latest technology on well designs.

Dr Maricel Marquez from Chevron who will speak about well design assessment is a petroleum engineer at Chevron who has worked in research and development, production, reservoir engineering, and project management.  Her arrival and presentation therefore is at a pivotal time when the Ugandan industry is readying itself for commercial production of the resource.

Chevron, an American multinational energy corporation is one of the largest corporations globally, according to the Fortune 500 listings.

The discussions to be held at Metropole Hotel in Kololo is organized by Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum (UCMP). UCMP is the private sector lobby arm of the industry and have convened the meeting in partnership with the Society of Petroleum Engineers (Uganda Section).

Irene Nakalyango, the chief executive of Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum said the occasion was an important one for its members to learn and share with one of the biggest players in the industry.

"As you know, we are excited by the recent major announcements around the pipeline, refinery and that the production licenses will be issued soon, we want to ensure that the private sector are kept informed and ready," said Nakalyango.

After announcing a new licensing round for exploration by potential investors, Uganda received seven bids for six oil exploration blocks. The licensing round is expected to be concluded at the end of June according to earlier information given by the ministry of energy.

The six blocks in the Albertine Graben basin cover an area of approximately 3,000 square kilometres.

The Wednesday session will also feature presentations from the directorate of Petroleum highlighting current industry updates.

Uganda's oil industry has in the past two months received a boost with the announcement of the decision on the pipeline route through Tanga in Tanzania.

Preparatory work is already ongoing on the land acquisition process while another major decision is expected soon on the development of the refinery as well as the production licenses to two firms in the joint venture- Tullow Oil and Total.