UK-based explorer Tullow Oil expects to list its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) by the end of the first quarter of 2012 after missing an earlier target, a company official told Reuters on Friday.
The east African country discovered commercial hydrocarbon deposits in the Albertine rift basin along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006 and commercial production is expected to start early next year.
Tullow, which has made the most discoveries in the country, controls a third of three exploration blocks after entering partnerships with France’s Total and China’s CNOOC, which control the rest of the stakes equally.
“We have kick-started the process, it’s a lengthy one and will take some time but African Alliance is working on it and our expectation is that by first quarter of next year we should have listed,” said Elly Karuhanga, Tullow Uganda chairman, referring to its investment advisor for the listing.
He said the company was yet to get clearance from Uganda’s capital market regulator but there was a general agreement that the listing was good.
Uganda’s stock exchange has 14 companies, including seven that are cross-listed from the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The bourse’s performance has been steadily improving, after a long slump triggered by the global economic crisis.
