Uganda selects two final bidders for its oil refinery project

Two consortia from Russia and South Korea have emerged as the final bidders of Uganda's $2.5 billion refinery after two others from China and Japan were knocked out of the bidding process, the Ministry of Energy said on Tuesday.

Uganda is keen to add value to its crude output to maximise earnings from its hydrocarbon reserves, which were discovered in the country along its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006.

Government geologists estimate reserves at 3.5 billion barrels.

The ministry said in statement that a consortium led by South Korea's SK Energy Co. and another led by Russia's RT-Global Resources had been selected to proceed to the final phase of the bidding process.

Early this month the two companies together with China's state-owned China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPPB) and Japan's Marubeni Corporation were invited to submit bids from an initial shortlist of six firms.

Marubeni Corporation’s proposal was not evaluated because it lacked a bid bond while CPPB's proposal did not adequately satisfy all the requirements of tender, the statement said.

Copyright, Reuters, 2014.