Announced by Pres. Museveni : the oil discovery by Hardman Resources Ltd last June in 3 Oil fields at the northwestern part of the country. It was announced only this month as they were waiting for a “fitting” day to announce it to their people. This discovery puts Uganda in the short list of Oil Producing Countries in Africa.
The site is expected to generate 6,000-10,000 Bpd (100~300 Million Barrels est. reserves). Good enough to meet local demand as Uganda consumes about 10,000 bpd. Commercial Oil production is projected to start in 2009 by the initial set-up of a mini-refinery which will process moderate amounts of crude oil into diesel, kerosene as well as fuel oil for electricity generation.
As with other oil and mineral discoveries announcement, a rumored land buying rush is ensuing.
Interesting to note also that Uganda has gotten joint venture inquiries for the mass planting of Jatropha and Pongomia Pinnata for conversion to Biodiesel by some Asian countries. If petroleum will become cheap there, it will definitely be cheaper to produce the jatropha for export there given the low oil price. I am not sure if this is the same scheme that some Korean businessmen were trying to push in Mindanao, wherein they were just offering to buy the Jatropha seeds from the farmers and made no mention of setting up of a processing plant. As an incentive they were giving away free seeds.
Africa seems to be the logical choice for planting Jatropha after talking to a retired official of a multinational fruit company based in the US. He said that it was so easy to set up plantations in Africa given the cheapness of the land (not to mention that Jatropha easily grows on marginal land). The problem however was whenever they changed governments (which was quite often) so did their leases go out the window.
Original Article here
Category: Oil, Biodiesel
