Hon. Irene Muloni (left) poses with the Council for African Policy’s Patrick Ongodia and another Ugandan participant at the EITI conference in Sydney.

The sixth global conference of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) ended today in Sydney, Australia, with all member countries and prospective member countries, including Uganda, re-affirming their commitment to the initiative. Read More

The Nigeria Stall at the EITI exhibition in Sydney. Nigeria has recovered two billion dollars of mismanaged funds as a result of EITI.

The sixth Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) global conference opened today in Sydney, Australia, with the watchdog unveiling revised, more stringent standards for member countries and those intending to join.

Perhaps the most significant of the revised standards is the requirement for member states to make their contracts with the companies, including the Production Sharing Agreements, more transparent. Read More

Mr. Erik Solheim

The 2013 Mining for Development Conference closed today in Sydney, Australia, with speaker after speaker emphasising the role of good political and business leadership in the sustainable exploitation of natural resources.

While speaking on the final day of the two-day event, the Chairman of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Erik Solheim, told delegates that bad governance was the main reason why some countries remained under developed, despite possessing vast amounts of mineral wealth. Read More

Recently elected Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta promised sweeping but expensive reforms during the campaigns and must be eager to have Kenya on the list of the world’s oil producers.

Exploration news coming out of Kenya this month indicates that the country will shelve the champagne, for now, as international oil companies intensify their treasure hunt on and offshore.

Last week, United States major Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced it had failed to find oil in its ‘Kubwa’ well on Block L-07 offshore Kenya. Read More

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Board suspended the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) mid this month following concerns that it was not fully disclosing financial information and the disclosed financial figures were not reliable.

EITI is an international initiative that operates on the principle that companies working in the extractives sector of member countries must publicly disclose payments they make to governments and governments disclose whatever revenues they receive from those companies. Read More

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced on Tuesday that it had acquired Canada’s loss-making Nexen Inc., at a price of about 15 billion dollars.

This is the largest overseas acquisition ever made by a Chinese company, as China seeks to deepen its footprint in developed countries.

According to Xinhua News Agency, China’s three major energy companies-China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and CNOOC – closed acquisition deals overseas worth a total of $25.4 billion in 2012. Read More

A sign at the entrance of a primary school built by Heritage Oil and Gas in Buhuka, Hoima District in the area that hosts the Kingfisher Oil wells (Photo:CM)

Uganda’s oil industry received two belated Easter presents this week that, according to government officials, place the country on a solid path towards oil production.

Amidst jubilation following Uganda’s reported victory in the tax arbitration case against Heritage Oil and Gas in London on Wednesday; junior Minerals Minister, Peter Lokeris, revealed that President Yoweri Museveni had finally signed the Petroleum (Exploration, Development, Production) 2012 Bill, into law. Read More

Mr. Philip Ajack Boldit

South Sudan is urgently working on an alternative route to get its crude oil to markets by road, in the short term, if the agreement it signed last week in Addis Ababa with its Northern counterpart collapses again.

The two countries agreed that South Sudan would resume production by March 24, 2013, following months of back and forth negotiations.

South Sudan suspended oil production in January last year, accusing the North of charging exorbitant pipeline transit fees. The two sides signed an agreement last September, for Juba to resume exports through Sudan, but disagreements over border security issues delayed its implementation. Read More

Rtd.Bishop Baker Ocholla (Photo: CM)

Ugandan delegates attending a two-day Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Implementation Conference in Kampala have expressed their worry over government’s apparent reluctance to protect oil revenues from corrupt officials.

Reacting to the opening speech by Uganda’s junior Minister for Finance in charge of investments, Hon. Aston Kajara, several Ugandan delegates observed that government had not instituted adequate measures to safe guard oil revenue, yet the Public Finance Bill would be tabled soon. Read More

Seven years of ‘Oil for Development’ aid from Norway has significantly boosted the resource management capacity of Uganda’s Petroleum Exploration and Production Department (PEPD)—but environmental management lags far behind, with serious weaknesses in the National Environment Monitoring Authority (NEMA) and its partner agencies, according to a recent evaluation of the programme.

PEPD has demonstrated “good leadership and coordination” of Norwegian aid and “effective internal organisational development,” the evaluation report observes.

The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development is also praised for “good leadership so far” and “good cooperation [with] subordinate institutions” on issues relating to tax and revenue management. Read More