Kampala — The delay to issue Africa Aptitude Uganda, a construction company, with a licence has hindered the building of an oil refinery.

This was on Thursday said by Abby Mayanja, the community relations manager, while meeting officials of the company and those of Baker Hughes, a British firm, at the Africa Aptitude offices in Kampala.

Baker Hughes deals in oil drilling equipment.

"An Oil refinery costs $4.5b to build. We have the money, but what is hindering the start of the construction is the delayed issue of an operating licence," Mayanja said.

He explained that the delay was caused by the pending Oil Bill.

"We understand that Parliament is yet to pass the Bill, but we request the Government to issue us a licence so that we can meet the 2012 deadline," he said.

Mayanja said once the refinery is completed it will process 150,000 barrels of oil per day.

Graham Heffren, the Baker Hughes Sub-Sahara Africa area manager, said if the oil market was big enough, the company would build a maintenance base in Uganda to reduce the cost of shipping equipment to the nearest one in Angola.