20100205

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda's parliament will begin inquiries next week into production sharing agreements (PSAs) signed between the government and foreign exploration companies, a house committee chairman told Reuters on Friday.

The east African country struck oil in 2006 and has five PSAs, but activists say the government signed bad deals that hand a disproportionate chunk of the proceeds to foreign firms and have campaigned for it to disclose those agreements.

Winifred Masiko, chairwoman of the House's natural resources committee, said she had handed details of the agreements over to legal officers so they could go through technical aspects and report to members of parliament.

"Currently there's a range of opinion, some people are telling us Uganda signed bad deals, while some experts insist we have good agreements. We'll look at all these views and determine whether the government signed good agreements or not," she said.

Legislators, she said, would have a chance to look at the PSAs from February 10 but would not be allowed to take copies.

A report by Platform, a British-based environmental advocacy, said in November exploration firms in Uganda would reap excessive profits from their operations.

It said they would make a return on investment of between 31 and 35 percent based on a medium-price oil outlook.

Minister of energy Hilary Onek is expected to appear before the committee on February 16 to defend the contracts.