Uganda has once again rescheduled its first commercial oil production starting time for June 2027, APA can report on Tuesday.
Maximus Ochai, chair of the Finance Standing Committee of Uganda’s parliament, confirmed the postponement, quoting Finance Minister Henry Musasizi and officials from the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), as saying.
Ochai said he was told that the 1,443-kilometre East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) will be ready to receive crude by mid-December 2026 and the first commercial oil production is now expected before the end of June 2027.
The latest timeline comes only months after government officials repeatedly assured the country that first oil would be achieved in 2026. In March 2026, PAU told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that Uganda expected first oil by the end of July 2026. At the time, EACOP was reported to be 81 per cent complete, while the Tilenga and Kingfisher projects were 67 per cent and 77 per cent complete, respectively.
Uganda’s oil production timeline has been repeatedly revised since commercially viable petroleum deposits were discovered in the Albertine Graben. The government initially anticipated production around 2018, but that target was missed and subsequently moved to 2020 before later projections centred on 2025, following delays in negotiations, development plans and critical infrastructure. The government and its oil partners finally announced the Final Investment Decision (FID) in February 2022.
Earlier, in May 2025, Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa moved the target to June 2026 after the government had previously committed to producing oil by 2025. The 2025 target had itself been repeatedly communicated by the government.
In October 2023, Nankabirwa told Parliament that Uganda was “on track” to have its first oil by the end of 2025. Government budget documents for the 2024/25 financial year similarly stated that the country was on course to achieve first oil by the end of 2025. The Ministry of Finance had earlier projected that first oil extraction would be achieved in the second quarter of 2025.
The update prompted MP Patrick Oshabe Nsamba to demand greater precision from government, arguing that Ugandans should be told the actual month when oil production will begin rather than being given broad financial-year deadlines.
MG/abj/APA