The suspension follows the collapse of the Tullow sale deal where Total and China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) had agreed to buy the former's interests.
Several inward investors providing services to oil and gas sector are concerned about national participation and local content regulations being introduced by a private members bill soon to be tabled in Parliament.
The Spanish speaking Equatorial Guinea is a small nation of 1.2m people located on the West coast of Central Africa. Since 1994, Equatorial Guinea has been producing oil. Production has risen to 360,000 barrels per day in the recent years.
Peter Atugonza, a resident of Hoima municipality, says he teamed up with his friend to establish a piggery farm with the hope of supplying pork to the oil companies during the oil production stage but he is disappointed.
Tullow appears to have made a decision that it will not apply for the new licenses, at least from what George Cazenove the Head of Media Relations at Tullow told URN. He replied with a straight \'no\' when asked whether they\'ll participate in the new round of licensing.
In his ruling on Thursday last week, Justice Wangutusi noted that previously, the cases in the Tax Appeals Tribunal had been held in camera at the request of Heritage Oil.
After serving as President of Tullow Uganda for the last seven years, the company has today announced that Elly Karuhanga will step down from this role at the end of 2013.
Sam Mugisa, the Chairman Bunyoro Business Club, a consortium of business entrepreneurs from Bunyoro says local companies are yet to reap from the oil sector. Mugisa however blames the problem on lack of capacity for most local companies which gives international companies an upper hand.
Government and the oil companies operating in the country have finally agreed to set up an export pipeline and a refinery, ending a long battle on how to develop the new oil industry.
The reported world record oil discovery rate of 90 percent in Uganda appears to have earned the country suitors it previously never imagined with fifty applications for licenses to explore and produce oil in the country presently waiting approval of government.
