Jinja Storage Terminal (JST) which has been managed under a Joint Venture Partnership between One Petroleum Limited (OPL) consortium and Uganda National Oil Company Limited (UNOC) will now fully be under management and operations by UNOC effective 23rd December 2022.
The Finance and Energy Ministries have taken
over the management of the Jinja fuel storage terminal.
The terminal that has been managed under a Joint
Venture Partnership between One Petroleum Limited (OPL) consortium and Uganda
National Oil Company Limited (UNOC) will now fully be under management and
operatorship by UNOC effective 23rd December 2022.
The takeover of the terminal was officially effected
on Friday at a ceremony Presided over by the Ministry of Finance, Matia
Kasaijja. In attendance were UNOC Chief Executive Officer, Proscovia Nabanja and
some of the politicians in Jinja City.
According to a statement from UNOC, In 2017, UNOC
entered into a joint venture partnership with the consortium comprising One
Petroleum limited, One Petroleum Uganda limited, and Mbaraki Bulk Terminal
limited) for the operation and management of the Jinja Storage Terminal.
One Petroleum Limited (OPL) reportedly took a decision to
focus on other core businesses within their portfolio in line with their
business strategy and as such the partners have reached a mutual consensus and
agreement for the consortium to hand over the operation and management of JST
to UNOC.
The Finance Minister, Matia Kasaijja that the Jinja
Storage Terminal is a capital intensive venture requiring huge sums of money.
He, however, noted that UNOC is expected to profit
from it in the long run when it begins to trade in oil products. With earnings,
the minister hopes that UNOC will become self-reliant.
Kasaija also notes that several youths have undertaken specialized courses in
oil and gas and UNOC will serve as their primary employer.
Kasaija retaliates the government’s commitment to refurbish both the meter
gauge and standard gauge railway networks and ease the transportation
of already processed UNOC products to the different parts of the country.
Meanwhile, Nankabirwa said that the Jinja city’s
based reserves with their 30 Million-litre storage capacity, will be boosted
with another proposed storage facility in Mpigi, slated to have a holding
capacity of 300 Million liters.
Kampala Storage Terminal
(KST) as it is popularly known, when complete will keep up to 320 million liters of refined petroleum products.
These products will be
received as imports through Kenya and Tanzania and later from the planned
refinery in Hoima.
Kampala Storage Terminal
will also have an extension terminal to serve as a storage facility for
Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG).
It is expected that
Kampala Storage Terminal will reduce Uganda’s petroleum products(fuel)
shortages that usually lead to speculations and sometimes abnormal increases in
fuel prices.
//cue in: “we need to…
Cue out…the government company.//
Meanwhile, UNOC’s chief executive officer, Proscovia Nabbanjja says that
they plan to improve their efficiency, through the installation of an oil pipeline
terminal through Lake Victoria, which will ease delivery of oil products
directly to the oil facilities, located about 300 meters away from the oil
reserves.
