Officials in the East African nation, and their Tanzanian counterparts, signed three accords with France's Total and China's CNOOC to help kickstart development of crude pipeline and oil fields.
"Significant investment into Uganda's economy... has now been unlocked," Energy Minister Mary Goretti Kitutu told a news conference.
Officials at the pipeline company said contracts for its construction will be awarded to interested firms soon.
A total of 14,000 Ugandan nationals will be employed directly by Total, CNOOC and the pipeline, while 45,000 will be employed by their contractors, Kitutu said.
An additional 105,000 Ugandans would also find work "as a result of utilisation of other services by the oil and gas sector."
The development of the pipeline and the oil fields could potentially boost Uganda's economic output by close to a quarter, by 2025, the minister said.
The $3.5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), to run 1,445 kilometres, has been described as potentially the world's longest electrically heated oil pipeline and will help landlocked Uganda ship its crude to international markets.
It will run from oil fields in Uganda's west near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, where oil was discovered in 2006, and terminate at Tanzania's Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.
The country's gross reserves are estimated at 6 billion barrels while recoverable oil is seen at 1.4 billion barrels.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Duncan Miriri and Bernadette Baum)
By Elias Biryabarema
