Tullow Oil secures Ugandan go-ahead

Tullow Oil has received the long-awaited go-ahead from the Government of Uganda to complete its farm-down process of local assets.

The Irish exploration company’s plans to farm-down two-thirds of the Ugandan-based assets it acquired from Canadian company, Heritage Oil, to Chinese energy giant, CNOOC and French firm, Total, have been on hold for the past few years as Government red-tape has hampered the process.

However, the company’s announcement, yesterday, that it has signed two new production sharing agreements with the Ugandan Government — covering the Kanywataba and Lake Albert Rift Basin licences — is being viewed as a major positive. Tullow has also been awarded the Kingfisher production licence in the country.

It needs to finalise arrangements with its partners for completion of the farm-down and the related transfer of monies.

Tullow recently said its revenues for 2011 should amount to almost $2.3bn (€1.8bn), adding its performance last year makes it one of the industry’s “super independent” players, enabling it to seek out more high profile development partnerships.