Uganda’s economic slump maybe about to ending as UK-listed explorer Tullow Oil revealed they would restart work at exploration acreage in western Uganda, a senior official said.
Tim O’Hanlon, vice president for Tullow Oil’s Africa business told an oil and gas conference in Cape Town that Tullow would resume work in Uganda, where it had 1.7 billion barrels of oil to develop.
Tullow Oil was targeting an export pipeline capable of taking 200-230,000 bpd to Tanga port in Tanzania.
But rather immediate effort will be employed exploration and appraisal drilling at Kenya’s prolific South Lokichar field next month where it saw an upside potential of over 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
President Museveni two months ago granted five of eight production licenses to Tullow Oil. Commercial oil reserves were discovered in Uganda a decade ago, but production has been repeatedly delayed amid wrangling over taxation and field development strategy.
Tullow and France’s Total are required to make final investment decisions 18 months after receiving the licenses and Uganda said commercial oil production was expected to begin in 2020.
Both firms are expected to invest a combined $8 billion in infrastructure required to support oil production, including drilling 500 wells and erecting central processing facilities and feeder pipelines.
Uganda has 6.5 billion barrels worth of reserves in its fields located near its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to estimates by government geologists.
