Heritage Oil, a Canadian oil prospecting firm has said it discovered Uganda’s largest oil deposit in the Albert Basin near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Heritage Oil said the flow of 14,364 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from its Kingfisher-2 well “surpassed our expectations, indicating the outstanding potential of the Kingfisher discovery.”

“Kingfisher-1 was an exceptionally good well and we didn’t expect to exceed that, but Kingfisher-2 has exceeded it,” Brian Westwood, country manager for Heritage, told AFP.

In a statement, the company said the well was the third to produce more than 12,000 bpd.

Heritage discovered oil near the Uganda-DR Congo frontier in 2006, while British firm Tullow Oil said in May it had struck oil and natural gas in the Lake Albert Rift Basin.

“The oil is good quality, of light to medium gravity and sweet, with a low gas-oil ratio and some associated wax,” the statement cited company chief Tony Buckingham as saying, adding the firm had started its “busiest and most exciting drilling schedule in Uganda.”

Oil experts estimate that there may be up to two billion barrels of oil reserves, most of it under Lake Albert and drilling is tentatively scheduled to begin mid-2009.

“This is an exciting time for Heritage as we approach the commercial threshold for the development of our reserves in Uganda which will transform the Company,” Buckingham said.

Uganda will late next year embark on an early production scheme producing 4,000-5,000 bopd. The mini-refinery will produce diesel, kerosene and heavy-fuel.

The heavy fuel will be used to run a thermal plant which will produce 50-85MW that will be connected to the national grid to reduce the country’s power crisis.

The scheme will also be used as a pilot study before large scale commercial production of the country’s potential 300 million barrels of oil starts.

Source: The Independent