Uganda to start blending ethanol with petrol from January

 

Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda, in Entebbe, Uganda, on November 9, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

 Uganda will require fuel distributors to blend locally produced ethanol into all petrol sold in the country starting next January, the energy ministry said on Tuesday, a measure that could reduce the East African nation's petroleum import bill.

 Uganda imports about $2 billion worth of petroleum products annually.  It handed over exclusive rights for the supply of all such products to a unit of global energy trader Vitol in 2023.

 The blending programme is also part of government policy to promote clean energy, the ministry said in a statement, as bioethanol can help in efforts to reduce carbon emissions.  Ethanol is mostly made from molasses, a byproduct of sugar production.

 The ministry stated that it would gradually increase the ratio to 20% "on the basis of availability of supply," but fuel dealers will initially be required to incorporate 5% ethanol into all gasoline sold. Uganda, a landlocked nation, plans to begin pumping commercial quantities of crude oil next year with the intention of exporting it via a pipeline to a port on the Indian Ocean coast of Tanzania.