[5][6] The headquarters of UNOC are located in Fairway Tower, at 15 Yusuf Lule Road, on Nakasero Hill, in Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city.
One of the key objectives is to ensure an adequate, reliable, and affordable supply of quality petroleum products in the country.
The refinery is expected to boost the security of supply of petroleum products and provide an outlet for the discovered resources.
[10][11] In February 2022, Proscovia Nabbanja, the chief executive of the Uganda National Oil Company, said the project promised a tenfold return on every dollar invested.
He is a co-founder of Quality Chemical Industries Limited, a pharmaceutical company in Eastern Africa and the major supplier of anti-retroviral medications in Uganda.
[19] The board members included Francis Nagimesi, a former chief executive officer of the defunct Coffee Marketing Board of Uganda; Francis Twinamatsiko, a principal economist in the Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development; Grace Tubwita Bagaya Bukenya, a physical planner; Pauline Irene Batebe, a chemical/refinery engineer in the Petroleum Directorate of Uganda; Godfrey Andama, a senior geoscientist; and Stella-Marie Biwaga, a lawyer working with FIDA, Uganda.
[2] In June 2016, Josephine Wapakhabulo, an electric and electronics engineer, was appointed managing director and chief executive officer of UNOC, being the first person to serve in that position.
[23] In March 2018, UNOC concluded the bidding for transporters to move 45,211 barrels of waxy test crude oil, equivalent to 1,898,862 US gallons (7,187,975 L; 1,581,133 imp gal) from the oilfields in Hoima District, to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
[26] In March 2020 UNOC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Stabex International Limited, an oil products distributor in the African Great Lakes Region.
[28][29] According to The EastAfrican, the MV Uhuru, a Kenyan vessel, owned by the Kenya Pipeline Corporation, transports bulk refined oil products (gasoline, diesel-fuel, kerosene and jet fuel) from Kisumu to Jinja Petroleum Storage Terminal and UNOC distributes them nationally and regionally.
[34][35] As of February 2024, the discussions between Tanzania and Uganda are ongoing with the two countries exploring the possibility of building a petroleum products pipeline between Port Tanga and Kampala.
[36][37] In a twist in the developments, Kenya has since approached Uganda to explore the construction of the "Eldoret-Malaba-Kampala-Kigali Petroleum Products Pipeline".
Once the details are sorted in the weeks and months ahead, UNOC is expected "to start directly importing from Vitol Bahrain under a five-year deal".