KAMPALA, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Uganda plans to issue new oil and gas exploration licences in the 2025/2026 (July-June) fiscal year to help boost investments in the sector and overall economic growth, the finance minister said on Wednesday.

The east African country’s last licensing round, launched in 2019 concluded early last year. It handed out the last two of five blocks on offer.

“Accelerating investments in oil and gas will be instrumental in contributing to faster growth of Uganda next financial year,” Matia Kasaija said in a speech laying out priorities for the country in the 2025/2026 financial year.

To achieve higher investments in the petroleum sector and overall growth, the government would issue additional exploration licences to increase production volumes, he said.

Uganda plans to start commercial production of oil next year from existing fields in the Albertine Graben basin in the country’s west.

The government says only about 40% of the Graben has been explored so far, where an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of oil have been found.

France’s TotalEnergies, with 56.7% equity is majority owner of the fields and its other partners include China’s CNOOC 0883.HK and state-run Uganda National Oil Company UNOC.

Kasaija also said Uganda’s debt load remained “sustainable,” despite credit downgrades by ratings agencies. He said the country was committed maintaining its debt to GDP ratio below 50%.

In late August, Fitch cut Uganda’s rating to B from B+, citing its “reduced access to concessional financing, high domestic borrowing costs and a decline in foreign-exchange reserves.”

Fitch’s move followed Moody’s that also downgraded Uganda’s rating to B3 from B2 in May, citing Uganda’s “diminished debt affordability.”

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Ros Russell)