Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday asked Chinese businessmen to help the east African country set up an oil refinery and a pipeline that will evacuate the oil from the fields in the western part of the country.

Craig Bond, the chief executive of Standard Bank told reporters here that Museveni who met a Chinese delegation earlier in the day highlighted oil as one of the key sectors that would fast track the country's economic development.

"The building of a refinery and a pipeline was number one of the key issues he mentioned," Bond said.

A 16-member delegation of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) was in the country to assess the business potential and investment opportunities.

The ICBC owns 20 percent of Standard Bank which in turn owns 80 percent of Uganda's Stanbic Bank.

Syda Bbumba, Uganda's finance minister, said at the meeting with the delegation that Uganda prefers to refine its oil instead of exporting crude.

She also urged the ICBC to sell the idea of setting up a refinery to its wealthy clients back in China.

Uganda has been locked up in negotiations with oil exploration companies on whether to set up an oil refinery or export the crude to the Kenyan seaport of Mombasa where it will be refined and exported to regional and international markets.

Oil producing Iran last month promised to jointly fund the construction of an oil refinery and also train Ugandans in relevant fields of petroleum.

According to the Ministry of Finance figures, the country currently has an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil.

More oil wells are being explored in the Albertine Graben with the latest being Kigogole-3 exploration well.

According to the government, part of the oil will be used to boost power production in the country. Currently, the country is facing a power deficit.

The oil production is also expected to offset the country's enormous fuel import bill of millions of U.S. dollars annually.