Uganda is likely to issue its first oil production licence by mid year, a senior government official said on Friday.
“We’ve received applications from Tullow Oil for production licences and we’re currently reviewing them … that process will take a while but you could say by mid this year we’ll have handed out the first production licence,” said Ernst Rubondo, Commissioner for Petroleum Exploration and Production Department.
London-listed Tullow Oil had applied for production licences for three oilfields — Mputa, Nzizi and Waraga — all in Block 2, Rubondo told Reuters on the sidelines of a regional petroleum conference.
Tullow is the leading explorer in Uganda’s Albertine rift basin where the country discovered commercial hydrocarbon deposists in 2006.
The company said in January it aims commencing commercial petroleum production in Uganda in first quarter of 2012.
