The government of Uganda has issued 195 standards that players in the oil sector will abide by, as the country approaches the commencement of oil production.Uganda is expected to officially start oil production that will allowing the country to export crude oil or refined products that will have to adhere to international standards.

“Uganda currently imports all its petroleum products requirements from overseas. In order to guide the importation of products and foster local production of petroleum, there was a need to develop a wide range of standards for the petroleum sector,” Patricia Ejalu (photo), the deputy executive director Technical Operations at the Uganda National Bureau of Standard (UNBS), said.

The East African country has proven reserves of oil estimated at 6.5 billion barrels. 1.8 billion barrels out of the 6.5 billion barrels is seen as recoverable during the next 25 years.

Uganda is commencing oil production for the first time and to guarantee health, safety, environment protection and effective regulation by the Petroleum Authority, the standards are planned to outline how operations take place.The standards are aimed at petroleum and petrochemical products, drilling, development and production equipment materials, petroleum management, refining and transportation, as well as distribution.

“When you are importing products, what you require are standards for products and transporting. When you go into production, you have exploration processes, exploration equipment and activities. All these activities need standards and they are completely different from the specifications of importation. Also, when you go into refining, you require standards and codes of practice where it includes environmental standards. The ones for importation have always been there,” John Bosco Habumugisha, assistant commissioner in charge of Pipelines Development at the Directorate of Petroleum, told the Monitor news.

Anita Fatunji