News

November 25, 2009

Heritage Oil Ditches Genel Deal As It Sells Ugandan Assets For Up To US$1.5 Billion

Last week’s interim statement from Heritage Oil saw the FTSE 250 company reaffirm its hopes to finalise its proposed takeover of Turkey’s Genel Enerji before year-end. This week, however, the company announced it was walking away from the deal after signing a letter of intent with Italian energy giant Eni agreeing the sale of its Ugandan assets for up to US$1.5 billion.

The assets in question are Heritage’s 50 per cent working interest in Blocks 1 and 3A in Uganda’s promising Lake Albert Rift Basin, where there is talk of a billion barrel resource.  Heritage and its 50/50 partner Tullow Oil have made swift progress exploring and appraising this frontier lands, and their development plans should place Uganda in the league of producing nations in 2011.  But the scale of the resource, and its remote location from any sizeable markets, means there is a...