By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Ugandan Government, in a bid to protect its environment from pollution, degradation, and lack of investment, has said that it is taking lessons from Nigeria and other countries on the African continent by passing a law that prevents gas flaring and another law that promotes investments in its petroleum industry.
The Ugandan Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Mrs. Ruth Ssentamu, disclosed this at the recently concluded Africa Women in Energy International Summit with the theme: ‘’Promoting Diversity and Partnership for Growth,” which was held on the sidelines of the Oil Technology Conference(OTC) in Houston, Texas.
Ssentamu said that Uganda has learned from the mistakes of other oil-producing nations, especially those in Africa, and has developed its own oil and gas law by not falling into the mistakes of its predecessors.
She announced that Uganda will be producing its first oil in 2025, adding that from the first day of oil production, the country has barred gas flaring and any form of environmental hazards associated with oil exploration and production.
The Minister maintained that the discovery of oil for any country should naturally be a blessing. She, however, warned that such a blessing could also turn into a curse if it is not well prepared for because if a country decides to abandon agriculture and rely solely on gains from hydrocarbon resources, then it could be a curse.
In her own words, ‘‘Uganda prepared very well by training Ugandans to be the ones to negotiate the terms, policies, and conditions for its oil industry and they are now the ones developing the industry. We put in place all the relevant laws to guide our operations. And one of those laws stipulates that all the revenue we get from oil will go into infrastructure development only and not for eating or payment of salaries.”
According to her, one of the areas of infrastructure development that the resources from oil will go into is electricity because Uganda needs electricity in order to industrialize. Ssentamu also disclosed that proceeds from the nation’s oil revenue will be used to build refineries as the country would not be in the business of petroleum resources only to export all of its oil.