Ibrahim Kasita
9 July 2009
Kampala — TULLOW Oil, the firm exploring for oil and gas in the Albertine Graben, is suspending drilling in some places to concentrate on developing the already discovered oil and gas.
Exploration will now focus on Block 1 where Tullow works with Heritage Oil. Tullow will also focus on EA-2 (Kaiso-Tonya to Wanseke) in Block 2 in the Albertine Graben.
The company said in a statement: "We will continue to work with the Government to create a plan that will allow Uganda to fully realise the benefits of the resources (oil and gas)." Tullow has been drilling in Uganda since January 2006. It has drilled 25 wells in the Albertine Basin, with 24 encountering hydrocarbons. The 24 wells have reserves of 700 million barrels of oil, exceeding the commercial threshold for development.
The statement said Tullow has a good understanding of resource distribution across the basin, particularly in the Butiaba region where a high exploration well density and detailed gravity imaging has significantly de-risked the remaining prospects. "Much information has been gathered. We now need to determine the best approach to reach the first oil production for Uganda."
The Government and Tullow are also examining more medium-term possibilities for domestic production of refined products and long-term opportunities for the sale of 'excess' crude oil to Uganda's neighbours and beyond.
The first phase of development is expected to include long-term production testing, which could start as early as 2010, to gather dynamic data from the basin and supply oil and gas for local industries and for power generation.
The scale and timing of subsequent phases of development is being reviewed, including the viability of local refining to supply petroleum products for the region and the optimum routing and scale of exports to international markets via a pipeline. Tullow is still looking for oil and is drilling the Ngassa 2 under Lake Albert. Results are expected in late August.
Drilling is continuing at the Ngassa-2 well, where "oil shows have been encountered." The firm found oil at the Wahrindi-1 well, extending the Victoria Nile Delta reserves.
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