Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Tullow Oil Plc, the U.K. explorer with the most licenses in Africa, said the Ngassa oil field in Uganda may be the largest discovery in the Lake Albert Rift Basin to date, sending its shares to a record for a second day.

Ngassa-2 encountered 7 meters (23 feet) of oil pay, London- based Tullow said in a statement today. Pressure data acquired through logging operations indicate the potential for a “significant oil column,” the company said.

“Ngassa has the potential to be the largest discovery in the Albertine Basin, although a significant amount of further drilling will be required to determine the actual level of resources,” Phil Corbett, an analyst at RBS Hoare Govett Ltd., wrote in a note to investors.

Tullow rose to a record in London trading yesterday after announcing a deep-water discovery at the Venus well off Sierra Leone with partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. The Ngassa prospect may hold as much as 600 million barrels of oil, Exploration Director Angus McCoss said yesterday. Total discoveries in Uganda, excluding Ngassa, are estimated to exceed 700 million barrels of oil, the company said in August.

Tullow surged as much as 4.9 percent in London and was 38 pence higher at 1,225 pence as of 8:03 a.m. That’s the highest since the shares were first sold in 1989.

Seek Partners

After announcing results from Ngassa-2, Tullow plans to open its data room to secure partners for the Uganda project, McCoss said.

“The majors have been knocking on our door and giving us technical presentations. Some national oil companies have done the same,” he said, declining to name any potential partners. The Ngassa-2 results “will clear the way for a competitive process. There is a good appetite for the farm-in.”

The Venus B-1 well, the first deep-water test in the Sierra Leone-Liberian Basin, was drilled to about 18,500 feet and found “more than 45 net feet of hydrocarbon pay,” according to a statement yesterday.

Aside from Ghana and Uganda, Tullow is developing fields in countries including Liberia, Angola and Ivory Coast to counter a decline in production in Britain, where setbacks in North Sea operations have curbed output.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kari Lundgren in London at klundgren2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 17, 2009 03:12 EDT