Tullow completes Uganda acquisition

Tullow Oil has completed the acquisition of Heritage Oil's assets in its Ugandan project.

Prior to the deal, Tullow had an interest in three blocks in the Lake Albert Basin, and agreed to buy partner Heritage out of its share of blocks one and 3A in the licences. The 50 per cent interest cost Tullow $1.35 billion (€1.1 billion), with an additional contractual settlement amount of US$100 million

The deal was subject to approval from the Ugandan government. Conditional approval was granted on July 6th.

Tullow now plans to bring in China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and French firm Total to develop the Uganda project, with each taking equal shares in the licence.

"This is a major step forward for Tullow and the Ugandan oil industry," said chief executive Aidan Heavey. "We now look forward to signing the farmdown agreements with CNOOC and Total in the coming weeks and commence work with them on an accelerated basin-wide development plan that is expected to deliver production well in excess of 200,000 bopd from the Albert Rift Basin."