UGANDA CHAMBER OF MINES & PETROLEUM LEADS VISITING CONTINGENT TO TILENGA PROJECT SITES

Thursday, 28th July 2022. The Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum (UCMP) led a consortium of companies to visit the different Oil & Gas sites under the Tilenga Project in Buliisa and Nwoya Districts.

The visit organised and coordinated by the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), included several companies including East Global Logistics Kenya, BTS Clearing & Forwarding, Steel & Tube Ltd, True North Consults, SGA Security, and banks including NCBA, Stanbic Bank and KCB.

Alongside these companies was a contingent from the External Security Organisation (ESO) and a larger group from Tarn Energy Services Ltd, a company currently offering training in the introductory courses in Oil and Gas, civil works, Accounting, and Health Safety and Environment (HSE) in the Oil and Gas sector.

SITES VISITED

The combined group started their tour at Kasemene 1, one of the first oil wells drilled in 2008 during the exploration and appraisal phase, but currently suspended and hosting Bitutainers storing the crude oil extracted from the ground during that period.  PAU’s Goodwin Mfitundinda explained to the visiting contingent that the Bitutainers visible to them contained close to 40,000 barrels of crude oil and had been handed over to Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) to find a buyer on behalf of the Government of Uganda. 

“Despite the constant propaganda on social media and in the public, you can clearly see that Government has not sold any oil and all the crude extracted in the exploration phase is contained in these Bitutainers,” he added.

After a site visit to Kasemene 1, the group then crossed over to the Industrial Area that will host the Central Processing Facility (CPF), Construction Support Base (CSB) and Drilling Support Base (DSB) amongst other key facilities.

VISITING TEAM WOWED BY TIMELINESS OF ACTIVITIES

The Tarn Energy Services Ltd CEO Nobert Musisi on behalf of his group, appreciated the progress of ongoing works and thanked TotalEnergies EP Uganda, contractors and sub-contractors for the effort put in to see to it that work is accomplished within the designed time frame. “I have to say we are pleasantly surprised with the progress we are seeing here. We cannot wait to be a part of this project at first oil in 2025,” he added.

The visiting group also toured some of the resettlement houses constructed for the Project Affected Persons (PAPs) and a few cassava gardens flourishing as a result of the livelihood restoration program where PAPs were given 9 bags of cassava cuttings to start plantations. The visit ended with a tour of JBR5, one of the well pads in Nwoya District, expected to host the first rig expected later this year.