By Nicholas Bariyo
Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
KAMPALA Uganda--The Ugandan government said Monday it had
received applications for the development of ten oil fields in the
Lake Albertine Rift Basin, as the East African nation continues
efforts to commercialize its vast oil fields.
Ernest Rubondo, the head of the state-run Petroleum Exploration
and Production department said an evaluation process, of the field
development plans and petroleum reservoir reports submitted by
U.K.-based Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) and France's Total SA (TOT) are
in final phases.
The development is a major step forward for the country's oil
industry, whose commercialization has been delayed for several
years, mainly due to disagreements over development plans and tax
disputes.
"Tullow..has to date submitted field development plans and
petroleum reservoir reports for eight discoveries...Government has
reviewed these submissions and is in discussion with Tullow with
regard to content of these submissions." Mr. Rubondo said in a
statement.
Company officials couldn't comment immediately.
An official with the energy and minerals ministry said most of
the licenses are likely to be approved in the first half of
2014.
Uganda discovered commercial oil in 2006 but a litany of
disputes with oil companies, including refining options, crude
pipelines and tax assessments continue to push back oil production
dates.
Early last year, government finally agreed with oil companies
over the construction of a smaller 60,000 barrels-a-day refinery,
breaking a nearly two year deadlock.
In September, Uganda issued its first ever oil production
license to China's Cnooc Ltd. and the Chinese company is expected
to start pumping around 30,000 to 40,000 barrels a day from the
Kingfisher oil field by around 2017-18.
Cnooc, Tullow and Total are expected to invest a combined $12
billion to develop the oil fields by 2017.
With the country's crude reserves estimated at 3 billion
barrels, Uganda holds Sub Saharab Africa's fourth largest oil
reserves, behind South Sudan, Angola and Nigeria.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com
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