Written by Celeste Hicks | From The Guardian 

The race is on between Uganda and Kenya to see which will emerge as the region’s first oil producer. With the Ugandan government estimating reserves of about 3.5bn barrels and the UK’s Tullow Oil announcing that last year’s discoveries amounted to 600m barrels in northern Kenya, both countries are keen to press ahead with production and the promise that holds for increased revenues and national development.

Yet a number of issues stand in the way of realising the potential of what Tullow Oil has called “an emerging powerhouse in future global oil supply markets”. The most obvious is that there is no means of exporting oil from the two inland basins – South Lokichar in the Lake Turkana region of Kenya and the Albertine Graben on the shores of Lake Albert in Uganda.

East African Community (EAC) leaders have agreed in principle to support Uganda’s plans to build a refinery with a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day at Hoima, which would serve regional markets. Uganda believes this can create jobs and offer cheaper fuel for domestic consumption.

“Our national oil and gas policy states that we want to use the country’s resources to contribute to the early achievement of poverty eradication,” said Gloria Sebikari, senior communications officer at the ministry of energy and mineral development on the shores of Lake Victoria in Entebbe.

However, international oil companies have stressed the importance of building an export pipeline concurrently, probably joining up the Albertine and Turkana deposits and then continuing to the Kenyan coast at Lamu.

Read more at The Guardian