KAMPALA, Uganda — President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni will on Thursday, September 17, 2026, preside over the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Kampala Storage Terminal (KST), a major petroleum storage facility expected to significantly increase Uganda’s fuel storage capacity.
The terminal will be constructed on approximately 300 acres of land in Namwabula, Mpigi District, about 26 kilometres west of Kampala.
According to the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), the facility will have a storage capacity of up to 320 million litres of petroleum products, including petrol, diesel, jet fuel and kerosene.
The KST will also be linked to the planned Uganda Refinery in Hoima through a 211-kilometre pipeline, allowing locally refined petroleum products to be transported to the terminal for storage and distribution.
UNOC says Uganda currently consumes an average of 240 million litres of petroleum products per month.
The KST will complement the existing 30-million-litre Jinja Storage Terminal, together with private petroleum terminals and depots across the country.
The expanded storage capacity is expected to strengthen Uganda’s ability to maintain adequate fuel stocks during prolonged supply disruptions while contributing to the stabilisation of consumer and retail pump prices.
The terminal will receive both imported and locally refined petroleum products and serve Kampala, the Central Region and other parts of Uganda.
It is also expected to become a regional distribution hub once planned pipeline projects and the Uganda Refinery are commissioned.
The construction of the Kampala Storage Terminal is estimated to cost approximately US$310 million. UNOC says funding for the project has already been secured with support from the Government of Uganda.
The facility will enhance UNOC’s capacity to sustainably implement its mandate of sourcing and distributing petroleum products. It will also provide storage and handling services to oil marketing companies and create capacity for the establishment and management of Government strategic fuel reserves.
UNOC will own 100 per cent of the terminal and will be responsible for its operations once the facility is commissioned.
The KST Hub will also include the future Mpigi Remote Refinery Terminal (MRRT), which will allow petroleum products to be received through the pipeline from Hoima, directed into storage facilities and dispatched for onward distribution.
Together, the Uganda Refinery, pipeline, MRRT and KST are expected to create an integrated infrastructure network for transporting locally refined petroleum products from Hoima to the domestic market and, eventually, regional markets.
The groundbreaking ceremony comes just two weeks after President Museveni named Uganda’s crude oil Pearl Sweet on September 2, 2026, marking another milestone in the country’s journey towards oil production and refining.
During the naming ceremony, Museveni emphasised the importance of refining Uganda’s crude oil locally, arguing that domestic refining would reduce some costs associated with importing finished petroleum products.
“Our refinery will be one of the most profitable because, first of all, it’s far from the ocean and it does not have the transportation cost which imported oil has. When we refine our oil here, you don’t pay transit charges,” Museveni said.
The Kampala Storage Terminal will therefore form part of Uganda’s emerging petroleum infrastructure, connecting the country’s planned crude oil production and refining operations with the storage and distribution facilities needed to strengthen domestic and regional petroleum supply.
