Petroleum Authority recruits more staff

Uganda is set to start producing oil in 2020

OIL PRODUCTION

As Uganda gears up for first oil in 2020, the body charged with the regulation and monitoring of oil exploration, development and production activities is beefing up its human resource.

The Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) last week advertised 37 positions in the New Vision — including the positions of Director Environment and Data Management, Manager Refinery, Gas Processing and Utilization, Manager Pipelines and Storage among others. Application deadline is September 8.

Only online applications for positions will be considered.

Ali Sekatawa, PAU's director for legal and corporate affairs says this is the second such recruitment at the authority.

"We started (recruitment) with the executive director and then other directors. This new wave of recruitment is based on the availability of funds and the urgency of positions, as we prepare for regulation and urgency in the development and production stages of oil," he told the New Vision.

After a period of somewhat slow activity, developments in the oil and gas industry are picking pace, ahead of the 2020 production year.

Works on key infrastructure like refinery, pipelines and storage facilities will have to be done before the production date.

Speaking at an educative forum organized by the Society for Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in December last year, Ernest Rubondo, PAU's Executive Director said massive investments are going to ploughed in the oil and gas industry before production eventually starts in 2020.

"What is going to happen to Uganda between now and 2020 is extremely important, and it needs to be done well.

"Between now and the time when oil gets out of the ground, it is expected that $20b will be invested in this country, the GDP of this country is $27b, you are therefore talking about a country that has the potential of to have almost all its GDP invested in it in four years," he said.