in a further boost for oil exploration/production in Uganda it looks like Tullow Oil is about to ink a $5 billion dollar JV with Chinese oil giant CNOOC.
Tullow Oil Favors Cnooc As Partner For Uganda Oil Fields
KAMPALA, Uganda (Dow Jones)-UK-based Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) favors China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CEO) to partner it in developing Uganda's downstream oil industry as the country seeks to start oil production, people familiar with the situation said Thursday.
Company sources said Tullow has now given the government two options of potential partners in Cnooc and Total SA (TOT), however, both company and government officials favor Cnooc, which is poised to invest $5 billion in Uganda to build a refinery and an export oil pipeline to the East African coast.
Cnooc executives are expected to meet President Yoweri Museveni in the coming week to finalize details of their proposed entry in the country's oil sector, according to people familiar with the situation.
Paul McDade, Tullow's chief operations officer, was quoted by Ugandan local media Thursday as saying the company looks forward to working with Cnooc.
"The Chinese are best in building refineries and they move fast. Cnooc has just built a big refinery in China which can refine the same quality of oil as in Uganda. They built it in a period of two years."
Tullow Oil Uganda Ltd. declined to comment.
Government officials said the development proposals of Tullow Oil and Cnooc are being studied, together with the proposal of Italy-based Eni Spa (E), as the government seeks to get the best company to exploit its oil reserves. A final decision on the matter is expected next week.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100128-700322.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesEurope
surely it can't be much longer before the market starts to wake up to the potential in GBP via their Ugandan exposure, with the next well now scheduled to spud on the 12th of February hopefully it will co-incide with the next upswing for the shareprice.
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