Oil in Uganda: Hard bargaining and complex politics in East Africa

From 2006 onward, a series of oil discoveries put Uganda on the global energy map. These were the largest onshore oil finds in sub-Saharan Africa in over two decades, and part of an oil and gas surge in East Africa and a wider energy boom on the continent. But almost immediately after the discovery of oil, a series of regulatory disputes between the Ugandan government and international oil companies delayed development and production. Uganda’s first oil exports are now not expected until 2020 at the earliest.