The head of Uganda’s Directorate of Petroleum in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development Ernest Rubondo could not be a household name, but he still remains a highly revered fellow in Africa’s Oil Industry.
His name is printed in golden characters as key figure in the current successes registered by Uganda’s Oil sector. In 2007, Rubondo received a Global Pacific Award for Distinguished Contribution to the African Oil and Gas Industry.
Rubondo is a graduate of Masters of Science in Petroleum Reservoir Geology at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London, a feat he arrived at in 1990.
He would later work with Scott Pickford Plc in the United Kingdom, a holding company which trades in the provision of technical, advisory and management services to the petroleum industry in the fields of geology, geophysics and other geoscience disciplines.
Rubondo returned to Uganda later to fill the vacuum in the sector and actively participated in field geological and geophysical data acquisition as part of the petroleum exploration effort in Uganda.
Between 2008-20014, he headed Uganda’s premier oil institution, The Petroleum Exploration and Production Department (PEPD) at the time the department was struggling to keep up with the pace of the sector.
According to Oil sector analyst Angelo Izama, PEPD is an interesting story. In the 90’s when it was hunting for oil it was largely ignored by the government and politicians. This allowed Rubondo at his team it to quietly build a professional culture without undue interference. This has been Key in strengthening institutional competence the sector is known of.
Rubondo currently is the Director for Petroleum in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development in Uganda. The Directorate of Petroleum is a legally established body which overseas the policy aspects of the Upstream, Midstream and Downstream aspects of the Petroleum value chain in Uganda
He has been the principle figure in the formulation of the draft National Oil and Gas Policy for Uganda, which was approved at the beginning of 2008.
He is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologist (AAPG), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the Geological Society of Uganda.