The Government of Uganda is opening up another six blocks for competitive bidding for oil prospecting. All the six are in the western Albertine graben. This will be the first time that Uganda offers the blocks for competitive bidding. In the last round government conducted selective bidding.
To promote the calls for bids, the minister of Energy & Mineral development, Engineer Irene Muloni conducted what is called a road show- a promotion event. The event took place at the Montcalm Shoreditch London Tech City Hotel on 17th June 2015 starting from 9:00am to 4:00 pm.
During the event, the Minister and her team took the prospective bidders through the potential of the blocks and updated their audience on the progress of the current prospects including the Refinery project. The licensing round was opened and advertised in February 2015.
The six blocks up on offer include; Ngassa (410 Km2) in Hoima District, Taitai & Karuka (565 Km2) in Buliisa District, Ngaji (895 Km2), Rukungiri & Kanungu Districts, Mvule (344 Km2) in Moyo and Yumbe Districts together with Turaco (425 Km2) and Kanywantaba (344 Km2) in Ntoroko District.
According to the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Development, “These blocks have both seismic and well data which were acquired by oil companies previously licensed in these areas. Stratigraphic Licensing will be applicable to some of these blocks.”
In a brief update on the current ongoing exploration activities, the Ministry of Energy & mineral development said, “extensive exploration for hydrocarbons during the last decade has established that Uganda’s rift basins contains commercially exploitable reserves of oil and gas and the country is planning to commence production of petroleum in the short term.
The Infrastructure Online has leant that by December 2014, a total of 116 deep wells had been drilled in the Albertine Graben. Out of these 102 run into hydrocarbons in the subsurface. Flow testing of some of the wells has registered cumulative flow rates in excess of 10,000 bopd (barrels of oil per day).
The Ministry of Energy & Mineral development confirms that some of the appraised discoveries confirmed substantial potential for commercially exploitable hydrocarbon accumulation. So far,
- 116 Exploration and Appraisal Wells drilled as at December 2014; 36 Exploration Wells, 80 Appraisal Wells, 112 wells have encountered oil and/or gas, 21 oil and/or gas discoveries have been made; 17 discoveries have been appraised and four discoveries reverted to Government
- Discovered resources currently estimated at an equivalent over 6.5 billion barrels of petroleum in place.
The principal prospective area for petroleum in Uganda is the Albertine Graben. It forms the northern most part of the western arm of the East African Rift System, stretching from the border with Sudan in the north to Lake Edward in the south, a distance of over 500km. Uganda shares the Graben with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The part of the Graben that lies in Uganda covers an area of 23,918km2.
