Ms. Irene. P. Bateebe is the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.  She has worked in the Ministry for fifteen (15) years in areas of Energy and Petroleum.  She has handled the planning and development of infrastructure for the petroleum industry in Uganda including pipelines, the oil refinery and storage facilities.  She has led negotiations for key agreements for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and Oil Refinery.

Ms. Bateebe is a member of the Inaugural Board of Directors of the Uganda National Oil Company Limited (UNOC), where she is currently serving her second term. She also chairs the Board of Directors of the Uganda Refinery Holding Company Limited, a subsidiary of UNOC.

Ms. Bateebe possesses a BSc in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), a MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering majoring in Refinery Design and Operations from the University of Manchester (UK) and MSc in Mechanical Engineering specializing in Sustainable Energy Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology - KTH, (Sweden).