Uganda Raises Estimated Oil Reserves by 40% on New Deposits

Uganda raised estimated oil reserves by 40 percent to 3.5 billion barrels after two new discoveries, according to Ernest Rubondo, the commissioner for petroleum exploration and production.

The increase from 2.5 billion barrels follows appraisal work at the two deposits as well as revisions from 10 existing fields, he said today by phone from Entebbe, near Kampala, the capital.

Uganda is set to become Africa’s newest oil producer when London-based Tullow Oil Plc (TLW) and its partners, China National Offshore Oil Corp. and France’s Total SA, begin pumping crude from 2016. Output had been held up by legal hitches and delays clearing regulatory obstacles.

The new fields are in exploration area 1, while the 10 fields are in area 1 and 2 of the Albertine region near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said.

“We made two new discoveries in May and June last year,” Rubondo said. “Evaluations of these discoveries were made this year and there was an ongoing appraisal of 10 fields.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net