Uganda has signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tanzania and its archipelago Zanzibar to strengthen regulatory collaboration in the oil and gas sector, as the country prepares to deliver its first commercial oil by 2026, Monitor reports.

The agreement was signed on June 17 in Entebbe between the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), Tanzania’s Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA), and the Zanzibar Petroleum (Upstream) Regulatory Authority (ZPRA).

The agreement aims to facilitate cooperation in key areas such as health, safety and environment, cost management, capacity building, and national content promotion. PAU Board Chairperson Lynda Biribonwa said the three regulators will benefit from technical exchanges and joint learning.

“There’s a lot we can learn from each other. The sector is very competitive, highly technical, and capital-intensive. But we’ve realised there’s also a lot we can borrow from one another, both as institutions and countries,” she said as quoted by Monitor.

ZPRA Commissioner Ali Said welcomed the pact, citing the benefits of shared experience.

“You may think you’re doing well, but looking outside helps. PAU and PURA can learn from our mistakes and strengths, just as we can from theirs,” he is quoted as saying.

The partnership is part of a broader effort by East African nations to align regulatory approaches and strengthen regional integration as oil production ramps up. Uganda, which discovered commercially viable oil reserves in the Albertine Graben in 2006, expects to produce up to 230,000 barrels per day once extraction begins.

As bne IntelliNews reported, the region's biggest infrastructure project—the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a $5bn joint venture involving Uganda National Oil Company, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation, France’s TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)—is now more than 60% complete and will transport crude from western Uganda to the Tanzanian port of Tanga.

Uganda’s PAU recently revealed that oil and gas companies are set to invest at least $2.81bn domestically in 2025. As bne IntelliNews reported, PAU executive director Ernest Rubondo said the sector had attracted $9.96bn in total investment by the end of 2024, including $1.9bn in 2023 and $2.44bn last year.

Zanzibar issued its first upstream licence in 2023, signalling its entry into the exploration phase. Officials from the three regulatory bodies said the new MoU will help formalise cooperation in responding to common challenges and building institutional capacity across borders, PML Daily reported on June 17.