Uganda has received seven bids for six oil exploration blocks offered in a licensing round and it plans to chose the winners and sign deals by the end of June, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development said .

The firms that submitted bids are: Armour Energy Limited of Australia, WalterSmith Petroman Oil Limited of Nigeria, Oranto Petroleum International Ltd of Nigeria, Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Ltd of Nigeria, Rift Energy Corporation of Canada, Glint Energy LLC of USA and Swala Energy Ltd of Australia.

These were are part of the 16 potential bidders that were issued with the bidding documents on 1st October 2015

In the statement, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development said seven of the 16 had submitted final bids.

“The attraction of seven bidders is significant, taking into consideration the current low global oil and gas prices,” the statement said, adding that the companies came from Australia, Nigeria, Canada and the United States.

“Government will conclude the licensing round by negotiating with successful bidders, sign production sharing agreements and award exploration licences by the end of June 2016,” the statement said.

The bidding document comprised of the Request for Proposal, Model Production Sharing Agreement 2015 (MPSA), Model Confidentiality Agreement for sale of data, Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) (Data Sale) Regulations 2014 and Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) (Data Sale) (Amendment), Regulations 2015.

Uganda’s first licensing round is guided by the National Oil and Gas Policy for Uganda (2008) and the Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Act 2013.