Kampala — Dominion Petroleum, one of the four firms exploring for oil in Uganda, has said a group of "quality" global oil giants are interested in taking up a share of its oil block in the western region.

Exxon Mobil Corporation, the United States-based oil and gas giant and France's Total are interested in owning stakes of Dominion's exploration zone in western Uganda, according to the US-based Wall Street Journal.

Oil wells

Dominion has identified four wells with oil prospects and also noted 11 leads which require further exploration.

Its largest prospective area has about 400 million barrels of recoverable oil, according to the company.

"We are in discussions with a wide range of quality companies to sell our stake in Block 4. But we cannot make any comments on which such parties might be, for reasons of confidentiality," Archie Berens, the spokesman for Dominion Petroleum told Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Through the sale, Dominion is seeking partners to finance the next stage of its exploration operations next year.

Tullow Oil from the UK and Canada-based Heritage Oil which jointly own 50 per cent shares each in Blocks 1 and 3A are also in talks to sell off their stakes to strategic partners who have bigger financial muscle and expertise in construction of oil refineries and pipelines, marketing and distribution.

President Museveni has insisted that Uganda's oil "will not leave" the country unprocessed in the name of "value addition" for high returns.