Tullow Oil's Ngiri-2 appraisal well in the Butiaba Block 1 has encountered more than 40 meters of net oil bearing reservoir, the thickest oil pay so far encountered in the Butiaba area.

Mr Angus McCoss, the exploration director, says the well, located 1.7 km north of the Ngiri-1 discovery well, was drilled down to 892 meters where a reservoir quality is said to be "excellent". Mr McCoss has likened the latest discovery to the Kasamene field in Block 2, where a production rate of 3,500 barrels of oil per day was achieved during testing last year.

Ngiri-2 well is the first of a multi-well appraisal programme planned to further evaluate the extent and recovery potential of the Ngiri field. Appraisal wells Ngiri-3 and Ngiri-4 are planned for the fourth quarter of 2010.

in total, Mr McCoss said, the exploration and appraisal campaign in Uganda has now discovered about 950 million barrels of oil and estimate to find prospective resource remains unchanged at 1.5 billion barrels. Tullow operates its 100 per cent interests in three licenses, Blocks 1, 2 and 3A, in the Lake Albert Rift Basin in Uganda.