Global consulting engineering firm SMEC, part of the Surbana Jurong Group, was engaged by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development of Uganda to develop a Master Plan for an Oil and Gas Industrial Park in Kabaale, western Uganda.

As a result of the discovery of oil in the region, and the need to maximise value from the resource, the Government of Uganda has allocated approximately 3 000 Ha of land for the project, making it one of the largest industrial parks in the world.

The Industrial Park is intended to form part of a new industrial city encompassing: an oil and gas refinery; energy, petrochemical and other strategic industries; an international airport; commercial and administrative areas; health and education facilities; residential neighbourhoods; public spaces; free zone, oil and gas export hub, and green areas.

“The park will have first class facilities, utilities and advanced security built to the most up to date standards and practices”, explains Godfrey Hatejeka, SMEC’s Utilities Engineer, Uganda. “All this will be centrally controlled with a SCADA system”. Hatejeka has been responsible for facilitating meetings between stakeholders and government bodies, co-ordinating project experts both local and international, and ensuring adherence to the scope of the contract and SMEC reporting standards.

During construction the refinery will create approximately 5 000 jobs, and approximately 650 jobs during operation. When operating at full capacity, the Park will provide over 30 000 direct jobs and about the same number of indirect jobs.

The Industrial Park will contribute to the overall development of the Ugandan economy and also facilitate the growth of the neighbouring trading centres like Hoima, Kabaale, Buseruka, Kaseeta, Kataba and others by providing support services to the Park. 

“Being the first project of this nature in Uganda specifically, and East Africa as a whole”, says Hatejeka “the Government of Uganda relied substantially on SMEC expertise for setting the project key performance parameters and training its staff on implementing this mega investment”.

He concludes, “With SMEC’s global service capability the project was executed within the contract period and budget parameters, to the satisfaction of the client”.