Cnooc Seeks Contractor for Ugandan Oil Project's Final Development Plan

By Nicholas Bariyo

KAMPALA, Uganda--China's Cnooc Ltd. (CEO) plans to hire a contractor to formulate the final development plan for the $2 billion Kingfisher oil field within two months, the company said Monday, bringing the company nearer to the commercialization of its Ugandan assets.

The contractor will formulate a front-end engineering design, detailing all the technical requirements of the project, including infield flow pipelines, processing facilities and access roads, the company's Ugandan unit, Cnooc Uganda Ltd., said in a statement.

The design will enable the company to make a final investment decision on the project, nearly two years after the Ugandan government issued a production license for the oil field.

The Kingfisher oil project covers a total area of 32 square kilometers near the edge of Lake Albert's southern tip, along Uganda's western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The oil field contains an estimated 635 million barrels of crude and is expected produce up to 40,000 barrels a day when it comes on stream by late 2018.

Cnooc co-owns the field with the U.K.'s Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) and France's Total SA (TOT).

Uganda's oil fields are estimated to contain 6.5 billion barrels of crude, but their development has been delayed by disagreements between the government and oil companies over the fields' development, refining options, and tax policies.

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