Uganda Implements Anti-Venting Law to Prevent Gas Flaring

The Ugandan National Government claims that it has learned from Nigeria and other African countries by passing an anti-venting law that prevents gas flaring. This law was modeled after similar legislation in Nigeria.

Mrs. Ruth Ssentamu, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development for Uganda, made this announcement on the sidelines of the recently wrapped-up Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), which took place in Houston, Texas, in the United States.

The minister stated that the legislation encourages investments for the country’s oil and gas industry as another one of its benefits.

This was discussed at the Africa Women in Energy International Summit, which had the theme of “Promoting Diversity and Partnership for Growth.” Ssentamu made these remarks at the summit.

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In addition to that, she mentioned that it was in an effort to safeguard the environment from pollution, deterioration, and a lack of investment.

You may remember that the World Bank stated that gas flaring, which is the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction, is responsible for more than 400 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions each year. These emissions include methane and other types of pollutants.

Ssentamu stated that Uganda had developed its own oil and gas law by learning from the errors committed by other oil producing countries, particularly those located in Africa. This allowed Uganda to avoid repeating the errors made by its predecessors.

She made the announcement that Uganda will start producing its first oil in 2025 and stated that the country would prohibit gas flaring and any other form of environmental hazards associated with oil exploration and production from the very first day that oil would be produced.

The minister stated that the discovery of oil in any nation ought to naturally be regarded as a blessing. However, he issued a warning that such a blessing could turn into a curse if adequate preparations were not made for it.

She went on to say that oil could be a blessing or a curse for a country depending on its decision to give up agriculture in favor of relying solely on the profits from hydrocarbon resources.

”Uganda prepared itself very well by training Ugandans to be the ones to negotiate the terms, policies, and conditions for its oil industry, and now Ugandans are the ones developing the industry themselves.

“In order to ensure that our business complies with all applicable laws, we have put them into effect. According to one of these laws, all of the money we make from oil sales must be invested solely in the expansion of our infrastructure and cannot be used to buy food or pay employees’ salaries.

Electricity, which is necessary for a nation to become industrialized, is said to be one of the infrastructure developments that will be funded by the resources derived from oil, according to her.

She went on to say that the country would not be in the business of petroleum resources to export all of its oil, so the money made from the sale of oil would be used to construct refineries instead of selling the oil abroad.

Regarding the issue of gender equality, she stated that it was high time for women to be given prominent roles and front row roles in the management of the economy.

”Women are naturally not selfish because they want every member of the family to be happy in an equitable manner,” she said, explaining that this is because women become mothers.

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The Minister of Energy suggested that more women should hold leadership positions in the energy industry.

According to her, when there is an inadequate supply of electricity and a scarcity of cooking gas, it is the women who are forced to resort to using firewood to cook, which reduces the amount of time she has left in her life.