Law makers make fresh promises on oil, gas law

The government has made fresh promises to pass the three Oil and Gas Bills into law, in order to streamline the operations of Uganda’s oil and gas sector.

The fresh commitment comes at a time when the sector is under scrutiny following numerous allegations of corruption and bribery by senior government officials among others.

The Bills that are yet to be passed include; the Petroleum Resource Bill, The Value Addition Bill and The Revenue Management Bill. They have been before parliament for at least three months now.

At a three-day workshop organised by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and parliament in Kampala yesterday, Mr Jacob Oulanyah the deputy speaker of Parliament, told committed members that the bills will soon be tabled before the House for discussion.
“As soon as parliament comes from recess, the bills shall be ready for discussion.

Hopefully the debates will move swiftly for them to become law,” Mr Oulanyah said. However, Ms Irene Moloni, the minister of Energy told Daily Monitor that it was now upon parliament to speed up the passing of the bills into law.

“How long parliament takes debating the bill will determine the time it takes to become law, otherwise cabinet has done its work,” she said. Civil Society organisations and several members of the public have been demanding for a proper legal framework and clear standards of operation within the oil sector in order to guard it from excesses like corruption and bribery among others.

Bills not tabled
Others include the Value Addition Bill, which covers crude oil refining, gas processing and conversion together with bulk transportation and storage of the petroleum commodities and The Revenue Management Bill.

The delay of these bills has denied the country transparency in its oil sector as well as lack of guiding principles to follow when signing agreements between the oil companies and the government.

Uganda has a recoverable oil capacity of about 2.5 billion barrels and the country expects to start commercial production by 2013.

The Westminster Foundation for Democracy and parliament seeks to law maker with capacity to understand economic challenges that come with growth of an oil and gas sector.

fnalubega@ug.nationmedia.com