Ugandan Government Shortlists 16 Companies In First Petroleum Licensing Round

The government of Uganda has concluded the evaluation of Applications for Qualification from the 17 firms that submitted the applications for petroleum licensing.

Dr. F.A Kabagambe-Kaliisa, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Development, said: '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. The firms were evaluated based on their technical competence, financial capabilities, legal qualifications as well as National Content and Health Safety and Environment track record.'

The 16 successful firms are:

1. African Exploration Venture (JV comprising of Rapid Africa Energy Pty Limited and Africa Energy SA Corp), South Africa.

2. African Global Resources (JV comprising of Telconet Capital Limited, RT-Global Resources LLC and JSC Tatneft), Russia.

3. Armour Energy Limited, Australia.

4. Brightoil Petroleum (Uganda) Limited, Hong Kong/China.

5. Glint Energy, LLC, USA.

6. MDC Oil and Gas Holding Company, LLC, UAE.

7. Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Limited, Nigeria.

8. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Videsh Limited, India.

9. Oranto Petroleum International Limited, Nigeria.

10. Petoil (Uganda) Limited, Turkey.

11. Petrica Energy AS, Norway.

12. Rift Energy Uganda Limited, Canada.

13. SASOL Exploration and Production International Limited, South Africa.

14. Swala Energy (Uganda) Limited, Australia.

15. Tullow Uganda Operations Pty Limited, Ireland.

16. Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, Nigeria.

The Ministry will in due course 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 the Directorate of Petroleum in Entebbe.

The six biddable blocks comprise of the Ngassa (410 Km2) in Hoima District, Taitai & Karuka (565 Km2) in Buliisa District, Ngaji (895 Km2) in Rukungiri & Kanungu Districts, Mvule (344Km2) in Moyo and Yumbe Districts together with Turaco (425 Km2) and Kanywantaba (344Km2) in Ntoroko District.