Page 14 - DMEA Week 18 2021

DMEA TENDERS DMEA

Uganda to tender oilfield

service contracts in December

AFRICA UGANDAN authorities are gearing up to seek she added.
contractors for infrastructure projects that will These ring-fenced provisions will help Ugan-
support the country’s nascent oil industry later dan businesses expand their capacity for provid-
this year. According to a representative of the ing support to oil and gas projects, she said. In
Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), Kampala turn, she added, local companies will be able to
hopes to call the first set of tenders in December. create jobs.
Some of these auctions will relate to the con- In the logistics sector alone, she said, Ugan-
struction of production facilities and the com- dan firms will probably need to hire about 900
pletion of a road network serving the Kingfisher machine operators and more than 2,700 truck
and Tilenga oilfields, said Peninah Aheebwa, the drivers to transport goods, materials and service
director of PAU’s technical support services. workers.
Others will cover contracts for work on the Laura Valetine Ukarimu, the head of the
East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and a youth training programme, which focuses on
refinery that will turn out petroleum products sustainable tourism, said at the event that she
for Uganda’s domestic market, she explained expected the oil projects to lend a certain amount
during a youth training event held last week. of momentum to Uganda’s tourism sector. Plans
The Ugandan government is taking steps to for the development of Kingfisher and Tilenga
ensure that some of these contracts go to local have created incentives for the construction of
companies, Aheebwa stressed. new infrastructure facilities that can serve both
For example, she said, Kampala has decreed tourists and oil workers, she explained.
that contracts for certain types of services, “[The] government has built about 500 km of
including but not limited to logistics, must be roads and an international airport in the [Lake
awarded to Ugandan firms. Albert] region, so tourists will find it easy to
It is also requiring foreign service providers travel both [by] air and road,” she remarked. “So
to assign some project works to local companies, marketing should be key for tour operators.”™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 18 06•May•2021