Page 4 - AfrOil Week 05 2022

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

(Image: PAU)
Uganda’s next big step

toward oil production

TotalEnergies and its partners make FID on Tilenga field and EACOP pipeline

UGANDAN authorities first learned that their the fields over to new operators in the hope of
country was home to commercially viable speeding up work.
WHAT: hydrocarbon reserves more than 15 years ago, Nevertheless, Uganda’s government has
The French major is when Australia’s Hardman Resources – later made significant progress during the past two
ready to proceed with acquired by Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland) – dis- years. In the spring of 2020, it struck a deal worth
the $10bn Lake Albert covered crude oil at its fields near Lake Albert. $575mn with France’s TotalEnergies and China
Development Project. These reserves amount to around 6.5bn barrels National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) on the
of oil in place (OIP), including around 1.4bn acquisition of Tullow’s fields. That deal provided
WHY: barrels of recoverable crude. for the French major to assume control of Blocks
The FID moves Uganda Commercialising them has been a slow pro- 1 and 2, which held the Tilenga field, while
one step closer to becom- cess, however. China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC)
ing an oil producer.
This is partly because of technical delays, took control of Blocks 1A and 3A, which held
such as the fact that the waxy nature of crude Kingfisher
WHAT NEXT: from the Lake Albert sites led project engineers In the spring of 2021, it signed a package of
ESG activists may be
emboldened to step up to opt for using a heated pipeline for transport. agreements with TotalEnergies, CNOOC and
their campaign against It is also related to the fact that disputes between the government of Tanzania on the construction
EACOP, even though their Tullow, its partner Heritage Oil (UK) and the of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
complaints are not the Ugandan government over taxation compli- Those documents outlined plans for the con-
only factor affecting the cated the first attempts to bring new investors on struction of a heated pipeline capable of pump-
pipeline’s budget. board and then derailed later efforts to transfer ing 216,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 05 02•February•2022