Uganda has announced one of its most significant energy breakthroughs in more than a decade after the state-owned Uganda National Oil Company identified nine potential oil wells in the Kasuruban block containing approximately 600 million barrels of recoverable crude.
The discovery represents the most significant energy advancement for Uganda since the first Lake Albert finds in the mid-2000s and is anticipated to substantially bolster the country’s proven oil reserves and the Albertine Rift Basin’s potential. UNOC stated that the discoveries were made within the 1,285-square-kilometer Kasuruban exploration block, acquired in 2023 under a production-sharing agreement with the government.
The announcement comes as Uganda ramps up development of the Tilenga and Kingfisher fields, operated by France’s TotalEnergies and China’s CNOOC. Commercial production from the two projects is scheduled for the second half of 2026, with peak output projected at roughly 200,000 barrels per day. The wider Lake Albert region already contains more than one billion barrels of oil and gas resource equivalent, and the addition of the Kasuruban finds further strengthens the basin’s long-term potential.
The timing coincides with construction advances on the five-billion-dollar East African Crude Oil Pipeline. The 1,443-kilometer line, stretching from western Uganda to Tanzania’s Tanga port, is critical for exporting crude from the Albertine Graben. At least 3.3 billion dollars has already been invested in the project, with TotalEnergies holding a 62 percent stake, while state-owned companies from Uganda and Tanzania, alongside China’s CNOOC, make up the remainder.
More than a decade after Uganda confirmed its first commercial oil finds, the nation is still not a producer, delayed by the complexity of building pipelines and a refinery, securing financing, and navigating environmental and community concerns. Together, the Kasuruban discovery, upcoming production from Tilenga and Kingfisher, and the near-completion of EACOP position Uganda as one of sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging oil producers.
Source: africa.businessinsider.com