{"id":21183,"date":"2025-12-17T06:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/ugandas-state-owned-oil-firm-to-borrow-2-billion-from-vitol\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:19","slug":"ugandas-state-owned-oil-firm-to-borrow-2-billion-from-vitol","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/ugandas-state-owned-oil-firm-to-borrow-2-billion-from-vitol\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda&#8217;s state-owned oil firm to borrow $2 billion from Vitol"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Early this year the east African country signed an agreement with United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Alpha MBM Investments to build a $4 billion,60 000 barrels per day domestic crude oil refinery. The UAE firm will have a 60% stake in facility while UNOC retains 40%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Uganda plans to start commercial oil production next year from fields in its west.UNOC will borrow the money from Vitol Bahrain EC (VBA) and the seven-year tenor loan will have an interest rate of 4.92%, Henry Musasizi, Uganda&#8217;s Junior Finance Minister, told lawmakers late on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Vitol Bahrain EC already operates in Uganda as the sole supplier of refined petroleum products to UNOC, which then sells it to retailers across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Musasizi asked lawmakers to approve the credit line and the loan was sanctioned after obtaining majority votes. Borrowing from Vitol &#8220;presents an opportunity to accessnon-traditional financing to implement projects and support the government in developing national infrastructure,&#8221; Musasizi said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">In addition to the refinery, the money will also be used to finance construction of roads, a petroleum products storage terminal and extension of a petroleum pipeline from western Kenya to Uganda&#8217;s capital Kampala, he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21184,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-21183","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"State-owned Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) plans to borrow $2 billion from a unit of global commodities trader Vitol to fund construction of infrastructure projects, including a crude refinery, according to a Finance Ministry official","published_date":"2025-12-17 00:00:00","news_description":"State-owned Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) plans to borrow $2 billion from a unit of global commodities trader Vitol to fund construction of infrastructure projects, including a crude refinery, according to a Finance Ministry official","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24950,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21183\/revisions\/24950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}