The discovery of crude oil and gas in western Uganda by Tullow oil presents a financial blessing to our citizens and government. Though it comes with a lot of financial and institutional management challenges which we have to deal with to prevent the nigerian widely known oil disease " The oil curse". The oil curse is a condition that rose from the failure of the nigerian government to management its' petroleum resources for the benefit of it's citizens directly and indirectly. This though was caused by failure of the government of nigeria to involve her citizens in oil and gas related opportunities before even thinking of commercial oil production. Coming back to Uganda, our nation has put up an "Oil and gas policy" and the "Local content policy". This is a good move as the oil and gas policy ensures that government and oil and gas investors as well as citizens work together to maximize profits from Uganda's black gold. The government of Uganda has so far taken up a responsibility of reaching international oil and gas associations based in Uganda ensuring that they are able to reach students in institutions and universities. Society of petroleum engineers Uganda section is one the associations ensuring a transfer of science and technology to students through the use of public lectures and organizing oil and gas competitions such as the petro-brain. Local content policy for Uganda was passed in 2017, however nothing much has yet been done to ensure it is achieved. Though we as citizens of this nation can play a role in the oil sector by applying the available resources and reach our children as well as local investors letting them know of opportunities available in Uganda's oil and gas sector. This can be done by inspiring local investors to put up oil and gas related institutions to train students who will be able take up jobs which will be presented by local and international companies. I as well suggest our nation invest a lot in technology and be able to support the oil and gas sector technology wise since this industry has evolved to be controlled by software and robots. We as a nation can as well reach tertiary institutions and primary schools extending career guidance in the field of oil and gas. Lack of information flow can act as a hindrance to Uganda achieving it's vision in the oil and gas sector. This can be achieved when we agree as government, citizens and oil companies to work together on a round table and handle this issue before the first oil comes out of the subsurface oil reservoirs. Thank you for reading through this article and if interested in more to come in future, follow this blog then.
SIMON APIL
PETROLEUM GEO-SCIENTIST AND AN ENTREPRENEUR
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