Uganda is now surrounded by other countries that are discovering oil and gas at a faster rate.
Kenya
Large quantities of oil were discovered in Turkana, northern Kenya, the rock on which the oil was discovered is over 20 meters deep and is believed to bear larger oil quantities than those discovered in Uganda. The production is estimated to be twice that of Uganda.
Kenya has recently discovered significant reserves of natural gas in the Mbawa-1 well about 70 kms off the coast of Malindi which is Kenya’s first ever gas find. The gas is about 52 metres vertical stretch.
However , the commercial viability has yet to be established.
Tanzania
Tanzania, with its oil seeps, seismic and other data, shows strong hydrocarbon potential in its upstream oil industry sector. However, only 20 wildcat exploration and 8 development wells have been drilled in a 222,000 sq km area, and therefore Tanzania can be classified as underexplored. The country has proven natural gas deposits of about 7 trillion cubic feet. It is estimated that Tanzania will soon confirm around 60 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from the current 7 trillion current figure. About 3.5 trillion cubic feet of the reserves have already been commercialized with natural gas wells being drilled in Songo Songo and Mnazi Bay gas fields.
Rwanda
Rwanda oil exploration began when the government entered into an agreement with Canadian firm, Vanoil Energy, to begin works in Lake Kivu, along the Rwanda-DRC border, which also falls in the Albertine Graben. It is still far away from finding oil but the exploration is off to a good start and so far, results from the analyses have encouraged Vanoil to continue their work. Rwanda discovered a sedimentary basin under Lake Kivu with thickness of up to 3.5 kilometres and are still analysing data from the 2D seismic technology to determine whether the structure of the basin is capable of holding oil.”
South Sudan
South Sudan has been producer of oil and gas for a number of years and it is considered to be vastly under-explored. The majority of proven reserves are located in the Muglad and Melut basins. The reserves of the country are estimated to be in excess of 6.614 billion barrels. The production of crude oil about 457,000 barrels of crude oil per day from both South Sudan and The Republic of Sudan.
The country is also rich in natural gas with reserves estimated at 3 trillion cubic feet