Reuters

CAPETOWN

Tullow Oil Plc plans to make a Final Investment Decision (FID) on a new oilfield project in Uganda in early 2017, later than planned, Chief Executive Aidan Heavey said.

Tullow, according to the earlier plans resolved to make FID on its oilfield in Uganda  by the end of 2016 following major oil discoveries in the country in 2006 .

“You need a pipeline route firmed down and then you need to get FID. So FID probably in early 2017 and then three years later, you would have first oil,” Heavey said at the Africa Oil Week conference in Capetown South Africa

He added Tullow expected to obtain a production licence this year in Uganda and to start oil output there in 2020.

The pipeline route to move oil from Uganda to the prospective coastal markets has not yet been decided.

Uganda has been pushing for an earlier production date around 2018, citing work by other investors. But previous targets have slipped.

“If Tullow is talking of 2020, that’s their business,” said Ugandan Energy Ministry spokesman Bukenya-Matovu Yusuf. “CNOOC which has a production licence has been doing a lot of work toward production and our 2018 target still stands.”

China’s CNOOC is also investing in Uganda, alongside France’s Total.

Crucial to any investment decision will be the decision on a route for an export pipeline out of the land-locked nation.

A proposed northern Kenyan route has raised security concerns as it lies near war-torn Somalia. Total has said it is considering a pipeline through Tanzania.

Story Credit: Reuters