An oil rig prepares to drill in western Uganda. PHOTO BY REUTERS
Uganda Ministry of Energy and Mineral development concluded the evaluation process of the applicants of the first Licensing Round for Petroleum Exploration, Development and Production of six blocks in the oil rich Albertine graben.
According to the permanent secretary ministry of Energy, Dr. Kabagambe Kalisa, Technical competence, Financial capability, Legal qualification and National content and Health safety and Environment history formed the basis of the evaluation. Kalisa said, 16 of the 17 companies listed met this criteria
“16 of the 17 firms that submitted the Applications met the evaluation criteria as spelt out in the Request for Qualification document and will therefore proceed to the Request for Proposal stage of this licensing round” Kalisa noted.
The ministry has also announced that it will issue the Request for Proposal and the Modal Production Sharing Agreement documents to the qualified firms to bid for blocks or a block of their interest after the mandatory acquisition of data in the blocks or a block through the physical Data Room at Uganda’s Directorate of Petroleum.
Uganda issued a Notice of Request for Qualification (RfQ) for the first licencing round on February 25, 2015 in which six blocks within the Albertine Grabenwere presented. Out of the Nineteen firms which responded, Seventeen qualified for the evaluation process.
See: Energy Ministry registers 17 multinationals for Oil exploration licencing
The six blocks included Ngassa (410 Km2) in Hoima District, Taitai & Karuka (565 Km2) in Buliisa District, Ngaji (895 Km2) in Rukungiri & Kanungu Districts, Mvule (344 Km2) in Moyo and Yumbe Districts together with Turaco (425 Km2) and Kanywantaba (344 Km2) in Ntoroko District.
The 16 successful firms are;
- African Exploration Venture (JV comprising of Rapid Africa Energy Pty Limited and Africa Energy SA Corp), South Africa
- African Global Resources (JV comprising of Telconet Capital Limited, RT-Global Resources LLC and JSC Tatneft),Russia
- Armour Energy Limited, Australia
- Brightoil Petroleum (Uganda) Limited, Hong Kong/China
- Glint Energy, LLC, USA
- MDC Oil and Gas Holding Company, LLC, United Arab Emirates
- Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Limited, Nigeria
- Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Videsh Limited, India
- Oranto Petroleum International Limited, Nigeria
- Petoil (Uganda) Limited, Turkey
- Petrica Energy AS, Norway
- Rift Energy Uganda Limited, Canada
- SASOL Exploration and Production International Limited, South Africa
- Swala Energy (Uganda) Limited, Australia
- Tullow Uganda Operations Pty Limited, Ireland
- Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, Nigeria