Kampala — UGANDA'S discovered oil and gas resource in the Lake Albertine Graben is so far estimated at around 600 million barrels of oil, an mount considered essential for oil production.

The exploration areas stretch from West Nile to the south-western tip of Uganda covering 23,000 sq. km. The region is divided into nine blocks, five of which have been licenced to oil companies. The remaining four blocks are yet to be licenced.

These companies include Heritage Oil and Gas Uganda Ltd (Heritage), Tullow Uganda Operations Ltd (Tullow Oil), Neptune Uganda Ltd (Neptune) and Dominion Uganda Ltd (Dominion).

However, it is Tullow and Heritage that have made significant hydrocarbon discoveries. Over 22 oil wells have been confirmed to contain "world-class reservoir quality and productivity." These wells include Mputa-1, Mputa-2, Mputa-3, Mputa-4, Mputa-5, Waraga-1, Kingfisher-1, Kingfisher-2, and Kingfisher-3. Others include Nzizi-1, Ngege-1, Taitai-1, Kasamene, Warthog, Ngassa, Bufallo-1 and Giraffe-1.

According to Tullow, 2008 was extremely successful with all of the 10 wells drilled showing significant amounts of oil, with the potential to produce around 600 million barrels. This is significantly higher than the threshold for commercial oil exploitation. And there is a likelihood of finding over a billion barrels of oil in the same region, the company said in its 2008 annual report.