Uganda announced the appointment of the chief executive of the National Oil Company in another step towards the implement the national local content policy.

The Uganda National Oil Company (NOC) is established under the Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Act 2013. Key of it’s mandated is to ensure an adequate, reliable and affordable supply of quality petroleum products in the country.

NOC board in a press release announced the appointment of Josephine Kasalamwa Wapakhabulo, as the innaugral head of the body as the nation prepares to have it’s first drop of Oil.

The board chairman Emmanuel said: “Dr Wapakhabulo will lead the set-up of Noc and manage its transformation into a world class oil and gas company as the country prepares for commercial oil production.”

Uganda’s commercial production is dependent on the completion of the Oil export plan.

On February 23, 2016, Uganda announced a decision to route its export pipeline southwards to Tanzania’s port of Tanga following month of delays. The deadlock on the route was seen by industrial analyst as a setback to the production timeline.

Tullow oil Plc, one of the operators of Uganda oil fields said delayed plans to make a Final Investment Decision (FID) on a new oilfield project to 2017 due to the delays on the route decision. It’s still uncertain when exactly the nation will have it’s first crude as operators are still holding the card.

Analysts say, a saturated market and a yet to built export pipeline are the major impediments to the progress of the nation to first commercial production.

Completion of the oil pipeline is expected before 2020 according to the ministry of energy timeline.