Tullow Oil said today that it is the only remaining candidate to acquire Ugandan oil assets controlled by Canada's Heritage.
'There is only one sale and purchase agreement (to buy out Heritage) and that is with Tullow,' Brian Glover, the company's general manager of operations in Uganda told news agency AFP. 'There's no hurdles now. It's more just a case of discussion,' he added.
Tullow and Heritage control much of Uganda's confirmed oil reserves in a 50-50 partnership. Tullow by itself also owns a separate oil field zone.
Under a previously negotiated contract, Tullow held the right to preempt the sale of Heritage's assets to a third party. However as recently as February 5, a senior energy ministry official said that Uganda was not bound by Tullow's preemption rights.
Last month, Energy Minister Hillary Onek said the Ugandan government had endorsed a proposal for Italian energy giant ENI to buy Heritage's assets, and even threatened to veto any attempt by Tullow to activate its preemption rights.
But reports have since suggested the Italian company had withdrawn and Glover said today that the ENI bid was 'history'.
