Billion barrel potential in the Lake Albert Rift Basin

Tullow gained an interest in the Lake Albert Rift Basin in 2004 through its acquisition of Energy Africa. Since 2006, the Group has drilled nine wells, has expanded its exposure to the region with the completion of the acquisition of Hardman Resources and is now in the midst of an extensive exploration campaign.

Lake Albert is located in the north west of Uganda and the remoteness of the region provides many challenges. Operationally, access to the land-locked region is either by small aircraft or by road, and major supplies are trucked 1,300 km to the site from Kenya. Commercially, the distance of the acreage from developed world oil markets means that any future development will depend on the discovery of a sufficient reserve base to justify major pipeline and infrastructure investments. While these create risks, the potential reward is huge as the region has billion barrel potential.

To understand the ultimate potential of the region, it is vital to have a basin-wide approach with cooperation between participants and the Government. This enables all parties to share knowledge and equipment, coordinate activities in a cost-effective manner and progress an optimal exploration, development and production plan for the region.

Our work in Uganda has been assisted by our geological understanding of other rift basins such as those in India, Madagascar and the UK. Through this, as well as our support of a specialist study group in Calgary, we have identified rift basins as one of our core play types and are applying our knowledge in our day-to-day operations in and around Lake Albert.

We have made remarkable progress to date. All wells drilled have found oil, and test results have been outstanding. Encouraged by this, we have embarked on a major campaign of drilling and seismic acquisition across all of our licences. Our ultimate objective is to achieve Uganda’s first oil production in 2009 through an early production system [EPS] and, ultimately, to establish a long-term business in East Africa. This will bring major changes to Lake Albert, and in cooperation with local elders and regional authorities, we are already supporting the communities where we work in the areas of education, health, sanitation and lake safety as part of our long-term commitment to the region.