Dublin and London listed exploration firm Tullow Oil will start producing oil in Uganda in 2012 and not this year as expected.
Tullow's Uganda manager Brian Glover told reporters in Kampala plans to begin work this year appeared quite challenging.
But he announced that the firm would increase its invest in the east African country to about $10 billion over the next 10 years.
Uganda discovered commercial quantities of hydrocarbons in the Lake Albert rift basin along its western border with DRC in 2006. Exploration firms estimate the country has reserves of up to 2.5 billion barrels.
Tullow paid some $1.5 billion to Heritage Oil for its intersts in Block 1 and 3a in the Lake Albert basin.
The firm explored 37 wells in Uganda, 36 of which were found to be viable.
Tullow has interests in over 85 exploration and production licences across 23 countries in Africa, Europe, South America and south Asia.
In Africa, Tullow has production in a number of jurisdictions including Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire and Congo.
It rose 1.4 per cent in London yesterday after bullish updates for two of its other wells in Ghana and Mauritania.
Bloomberg