Uganda has postponed the start of its first commercial oil production to June 2027, marking another delay to a project that has faced repeated setbacks.
Chair of the Finance Standing Committee of Uganda’s Parliament, Maximus Ochai, confirmed the latest timeline, citing a press briefing from Finance Minister Henry Musasizi and officials of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) and Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC).
According to Ochai, officials informed lawmakers that the 1,443-kilometre East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is expected to be ready to receive crude by mid-December 2026. Commercial oil production is consequently projected to begin before the end of June 2027.
The latest revision comes only months after government officials repeatedly assured Ugandans that the country would achieve first oil in 2026.
In March 2026, the PAU told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that first oil was expected by the end of July 2026. At the time, EACOP was reportedly 81 per cent complete, while the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil projects were 67 per cent and 77 per cent complete respectively.
Uganda’s oil production timeline has been repeatedly pushed back since commercially viable petroleum deposits were discovered in the Albertine Graben.
The government initially targeted 2018 for production, but the deadline was missed and later shifted to 2020 and then 2025 amid delays in negotiations, project development and critical infrastructure.
The government and its oil partners eventually reached the Final Investment Decision (FID) in February 2022.
In May 2025, Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa moved the production target to June 2026 after the government’s earlier 2025 deadline failed to materialise.
Nankabirwa had told Parliament in October 2023 that Uganda was “on track” to achieve first oil by the end of 2025. Government budget documents for the 2024/25 financial year also projected first oil by the end of 2025, while the Finance Ministry had earlier targeted the second quarter of 2025.
