This week, Heritage Oil and Gas Company will hold negotiations with Government to construct a refinery that will supply the East African community with petroleum products, said a senior company official.

The oil company last week announced the biggest oil discovery at King Fisher well in Bunyoro with an estimated flow rate of 14,000 barrels of oil per day.

The company’s country director, Bryan Westwood said, “We can not accelerate the production time to earlier than 2009, we have however, considered the possibility of a mini refinery because the cost of constructing a pipe line is much higher.”

He said this when addressing the Vice-president, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, during his visit to the oil site in Buhaguzi sub county, Hoima district on Sunday.
He added that the min refinery would be able to produce paraffin, diesel, aviation oil and heavy oils; something he emphasized would enable Uganda supply the entire East African region with fuel as well as the exporting country becoming self-sufficient.

The Oil Company is currently undertaking the procedure of acquiring a bigger Rig that can drill deeper.

The permanent secretary in the ministry of Energy, Kabagambe Kaliisa, said Uganda consumes 12,000 barrels of petroleum products per day, at the present and clarified that the combined discovery of approximately 26,000 barrels a day greatly surpasses the country’s consumption.

The Vice-president urged oil companies to speed up the discovery exercise so that the government can generate money out if it to fight poverty.