uganda tax resolved, page-11

Quite obviously President Museveni is dreaming if he really believes an oil refinery will be operating in Uganda next year, 2012!
The people of Uganda are so lucky they have him to thank for saving all their oil from being stolen.
One can only presume he was referring to the two oil companies that had been operating there, Tullow and Heritage, when he made these inflammatory comments in mid November_ "It is the NRM that discovered petroleum in Uganda . . . You people should be glad that I was here to make sure the oil wasn't stolen" he said to delegates at the Serena. "These people have thought we were like other African countries but we have said, No."
In the same speech, Museveni also claimed that Uganda would send a satellite to space and achieve middle income status by 2015. But like these bombastic claims, the President's boast that he can win the battle for Uganda's lost oil taxes is not likely to be borne out by reality.
This weekend article is from Dow Jones Newswires
Uganda Plans Public-Private Partnership Oil Refinery -President
01 Jan 2011 - 06:53KAMPALA, Uganda -(Dow Jones)- The Ugandan government is planning to develop an oil refinery on a public-private partnership basis when oil production commences in the next couple of years, the Ugandan president said late Saturday.

In a national address, President Yoweri Museveni said that the refinery would be developed in a phased manner starting an initial capacity of around 20,000 to 40,000 barrels a day in 2012 and eventually going up to at least 200,000 barrels by 2016.

"With the prospect of large oil revenues, Uganda will soon be free from external influence in the implementation of our investment program," he said. "Government has moved to improve the regulatory environment of the [oil and gas] sector to ensure that it achieves maximum benefit from these resources."

Oil exploration companies have discovered at least 800 million barrels of recoverable oil reserves in Uganda's Lake Albert rift basin, along the border with mineral-rich but lawless Eastern Congo.

Museveni said the government will pass new legislation on access to oil and gas rights, regulating exploration and production, refining and gas processing and managing petroleum revenue.

At least 20,000 jobs are expected to be directly generated by the oil industry and another 100,000 jobs generated as a result of the multiplier effect, President Museveni added.

China's CNOOC Ltd. (0883.HK, CEO) and French oil major Total SA (TOT) have already entered a joint operating deal with the U.K.'s Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN, TUWOY) for the development of Uganda's oil assets in three blocks. The deal is pending government approval.

In a bid to ensure an investor-friendly environment to facilitate continued attraction of investments in exploration, a complete appraisal of the discovered oil and gas in at least 14 oil fields is being conducted. Uganda is also expected to open licensing rounds in 2011 for the areas with petroleum potential in the oil region.


-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires-