The country recently revamped its oil and gas section in the Uganda Museum.

 

The section, which was made possible with funding from the three major oil companies, Total E&P, Tullow and CNOOC, is to serve as a centre for basic information and research about oil and gas in Uganda. The section offers a history of the petroleum industry in Uganda, all the way from 1920 when preliminary exploration was done by the African-European Investment Company with the first oil well, Butiaba Waki B-1 drilled in 1938.

 

It then takes you through the years up to the current developments, where the country is gearing up for the production stage.

 

Among the artifacts on display is the drilling rig, a machine used to drill an oil well. However, the most eye-catching and biggest of all the machines on display is one called the 'Christmas tree.'

 

The machine, which derives its name from its shape, which roughly resembles a Christmas tree, is an assembly of mechanical parts used in oil exploration and production primarily for flow control in oil and gas wells. Apparently, the control devices that comprise some of the 'decoration' on the tree are opened when the oil or gas is ready to produce, and the processing and storage facilities are ready to receive.

 

Other art facts include a cementing truck and fuel pump. Speaking at the launch ceremony held at the museum, Total E&P's corporate affairs manager Ahlem Friga Noy noted that the 'section is the only one in the museum, which illustrates the past, the present and the future.'

 

"Past, with the history of the oil discoveries and the extraordinary way nature through geology enable us to dispose a sustainable source of energy. Present, with the presentation on the pre-development phase and the hopes that are triggered. The future, with the production and the commercialization through the refinery and the crude export pipeline and the new economic prosperous era it will open for Uganda," she said.

 

Source : allafrica.com