Uganda has 6 sedimentary basins out of which the Albertine graben is the most explored. The graben forms the northern most part of the western arm of the East African Rift System, stretching from the border with South Sudan in the north to Lake Edward in the south a distance of over 500km. Other sedimentary basins are Hoima basin, Lake Kyoga basin, the Kadam-Moroto basin, Lake Wamala basin and Lake Victoria basin.

Within the Albertine graben, a total of about 6,000-line km of 2D seismic data and 2,000km² of 3D seismic data has been acquired. In addition, since 2002, 121 wells have been drilled in the graben out of which 106 wells have encountered oil and/or gas in multiple reservoir intervals in the subsurface, representing a remarkable drilling success.  To-date, 21 discoveries of oil and gas have been made in Uganda in excellent quality reservoir sands and many of the wells drilled have intersected significant net oil pay which is sometimes in excess of 30m. The oil is generally light to medium gravity (API of approx. 15^o to 33^o) and sweet, with low Gas-Oil Ratio (GOR) and some associated wax.  The discovered resources are currently estimated at a STOIIP of 6.5 billion barrels with 1.4billion barrels recoverable of oil and about 500Bcf of gas.

Approximately 12% of the petroliferous Albertine graben is currently licensed to international oil companies. The companies are TotalEnergies (Exploration & Production) Uganda B.V (Total) and CNOOC Uganda Limited (CNOOC). These companies have been issued with production licenses. CNOOC is operating two (2) production licenses and Total is operating seven (7) production licenses. Government of Uganda has exercised its rights in the contracts to take up its 15% participating interest in the production licenses and this is being managed by the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) on behalf of Government.

These current petroleum resources are being commercialized under two projects i.e., the Tilenga project that is being operated by Total and the Kingfisher Development Area that is being operated by CNOOC Uganda Limited. These projects have progressed hand in and currently, the IOCs have commenced the process of construction of the central process facilities, pads and land acquisition for this infrastructure is being finalized.

 
In addition to the production licenses, three (3) exploration licenses were issued in 2017 to two (2) companies; Oranto Petroleum Limited and Armour Energy Limited. This followed the successful conclusion of the 1st licensing round in Uganda that commenced in 2015. The 3 exploration licenses cover the Ngassa Shallow Play and the Ngassa Deep Play licensed to Oranto Petroleum Limited, and the Kanywataba Exploration Block licensed to Armour Energy Limited. Currently, Government of Uganda is finalizing the second licensing round that was launched at the 9^th East African Petroleum Conference Exhibition in Mombasa, Kenya. This is also being finalized.

Government of Uganda has also commenced petroleum exploration in other prospective basins other than the Albertine graben. This has started in Moroto-Kadam basin, North Eastern Uganda in the Karamoja region. This is majorly intended to increase the resource base of the country that will feed into this planned infrastructure.

 
The Government of Uganda together with the international oil companies are currently undertaking the developments necessary for the commercialization of the discovered petroleum resources. The commercialization is planned to include development of a 60,000bbl/day modular refinery and development of a heated crude oil export pipeline. The refinery development is currently on progress with a Project Framework Agreement having been concluded with the lead investor. Front End Engineering Design and ESIA studies for the refinery development project are being finalized.

Following the conclusion of the process to identify the least cost route for transporting Uganda’s crude oil to the East African coast to access the international market, it was agreed that the export pipeline route will be through Tanzania to Port of Tanga. The two countries signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for the development of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The two governments concluded the Host Government Agreements (HGA) with the Project Developers and all the enabling legislation is in place. Front End Engineering design for the pipeline has been completed and Resettlement Action Plan for the route is also being finalized.  
 
The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline traverses a distance of 1445km from Hoima in Uganda to Tanga in Tanzania and will be the longest heated pipeline in the world. Other in-field pipelines are planned to be developed in the country. These include; gathering lines from fields to Central Processing Facilities (CPFs), feeder pipelines from the CPFs to collection hub, product pipeline from refinery to central market in Kampala and product pipelines linking Uganda to East African countries.