By Toyin Akinosho
Whenever the Ugandan government awards a petroleum exploration licence and signs an oil production sharing agreement with Oranto Petroleum on the Ngassa area, as it expects to do in the coming week,it would be concluding its debut,31 month long, open acreage sale.
In the event, only two of the four companies that were granted the opportunity to take positions accepted to do so.
While Oranto of Nigeria and Armour Energy of Australia agreed to sign, Waltersmith and Niger Delta Exploration, both Nigerian companies, chose to walk out.
Incidentally, these two unsatisfied companies have far more hands-on experience in oilfield activity than the two who signed up (ref-Africa Oil+Gas Report, Vol 17, No 4, 2016).
And yet, Uganda’s is only the latest on the list of cases of poor outcomes of lease sales on the continent.
Angola, Nigeria, even Equatorial Guinea have suffered losses, both in relative and absolute terms, after drawn out bid round proceedings. Read the full article in the Vol 18, No 7 (September) 2017 issue of the Africa Oil+Gas Report.
