Kampala — THE Cabinet is still scrutinising the proposed law on the sharing of oil proceeds, the energy ministry spokesperson, Bukenya Matovu, has said.

"The principles of the law have been drawn and presented to the Cabinet. The law will tell us who does what and who takes what," he said.

Matovu added that Uganda has an oil and gas policy on which oil exploration is based.

He said the Production Sharing Agreement would enable the exploration companies benefit from the oil proceeds, adding that the agreement was a standard document used world wide.

He was on Friday speaking at a press conference held by regional MPs on the natural resources committee.

The MPs had been on a tour of the oil wells in western Uganda.

The legislators allayed fears that the Government had a secret oil deal with exploring companies.

Committee vice-chairperson Patrick Ochieng said the law would enable the public know how the oil proceeds are shared.

He said it was still early to haggle over shares with only the production agreement in place.

The oil production agreement provides that the companies use their own money for exploration, which will be recovered when production begins.

Uganda has oil production agreements with UK-based Tullow Oil, Heritage Oil and Tower Resources, all oil exploration companies.

Ochieng said the firms had spent over sh1trillion on oil exploration.

Civil society organisations recently accused the Government of having a secret agreement with the companies.

They threatened to petition the Constitutional Court to force the Government to make the agreements public.

Committee chairpersons George Nangale said the MPs interacted with Tullow Oil staff and the residents on the exploration challenges, production sharing arrangements, environmental impact assessment studies, and their anxiety and expectations.

He added that the committee would write a report on its assessment.

A few years ago, oil and gas were discovered in the Albertine graben. The exploration areas stretch from West-Nile to the south-western tip of Uganda. Over 22 wells have been confirmed to contain oil.