Two decades after Uganda discovered 6.5 billion barrels of commercially viable oil reserves in the Lake Albert basin, the country is seeing its nationals measure up and acquire skills to execute project tasks in the specialised industry that is scrutinised to global standards, with a few Ugandans now leading field tasks such as target drilling, pipeline welding and line pipe bending.
Among these are two high school dropouts, who are keeping the heart of Uganda’s oil projects beating as they work machines to bend into shape pipes that form the engine of oil production and transportation from the country’s oilfield in the Lake Albert basin to the export terminal on the Indian Ocean coastal city of Tanga.
