United Kingdom-based oil and gas explorer Tullow Oil said on Tuesday it made a ”significant” new oil discovery in Uganda, which was potentially the largest in the Butiaba area to date.
The company said the Buffalo-1 exploration well, located in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 1, encountered 15m of net gas pay and over 28m of net oil pay within a 123m gross interval.
”With many prospects still to drill in the Butiaba region and across the basin, we are now certain that the commercial threshold for development should be exceeded,” Tullow chief executive Aidan Heavey said in a statement.
The gross oil and gas columns found are 75m and 48m respectively and are expected to be even larger, Tullow said.
Tullow Oil holds 50% equity in Block 1, while Canada’s Heritage Oil Corp holds the rest.
Tullow operates Block 2 with a 100% interest and jointly operates Block 3A with St Helier, Jersey-based Heritage Oil.
Drilling at the third exploration well in the current drilling campaign will begin within two weeks and the well is scheduled to take about three weeks to complete, Heritage said in a separate statement.
Shares of Tullow Oil were up 5% at 601 pence at 8.02am GMT on the London Stock Exchange. — Reuters