Tullow Oil Appoints New General Manager for Uganda

Dennis Kawuma

24 June 2011

Tullow Oil plc has appointed Mr Eoin Mekie as General Manager Tullow Uganda, replacing Brian Glover as the United Kingdom based oil and gas exploration company firms up its operations with its new joint venture partners, China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Total in preparation for the country’s oil production phase.

Mr Mekie previously held the position of Finance Manager Tullow Uganda. He is said to have a wealth of oil and gas experience, having managed operations and developments in some very challenging environments across Africa and the Middle East over the past 30 years.

According to Tullow’s London office, “Eoin (Mekie) has been working very closely with our (Tullow’s) new joint venture partners, CNOOC and Total, in finalising aspects of the farmdown and is well positioned to support a smooth transition over the coming months.”

Reacting to the latest developments, State minister for Economic planning and monitoring, Henry Banyenzaki said: “Tullow is a private company and they are guided by their own principles. Even if Glover goes, I would imagine that whoever comes in will push for Tullow’s interests. We shall however continue working with them to push for our national interests.”

Mr Glover who has served as General Manager for the past three and half years, has been appointed to a new position within Tullow’s global planning function in London. He has been a key player in the development of Tullow’s business in Uganda, overseeing the execution of operations in the Lake Albert Rift Basin.

“His departure coincides with the ongoing developments in the business, the most significant being our joint venture partnership with CNOOC and Total, which paves way for the acceleration of the development in the Lake Albert Rift Basin,” said Tullow Uganda corporate affairs manager, Jimmy Kiberu.

As to whether more changes are expected at Tullow Uganda, Mr Kiberu said: “Moving from the predominantly exploration phase to the development and eventually production phase will require a different set of skills (in some areas) and we’ll be looking to ensure that our business organization is structured and resourced to support the ongoing development of the project.”

Since last year, Tullow has pushed through a series of transactions that were geared towards speeding the development of the Lake Albert Rift basin. The transactions led to the purchase of Heritage Oil and Gas Limited’s interests in blocks EA-1 and EA-3A in July last year. Later, the process to farm-down interests to CNOOC and Total, with each partner taking a one third interest in EA-1, 2 and 3A, was signed in March this year, following the signing of a Memorandum of Uganda between Tullow and the Government of Uganda on 15 March.

A total of 1 billion barrels of oil has already been discovered in the Lake Albert Rift Basin. With many prospective wells still to be drilled, Tullow estimates the basin has an additional 1.5 billion barrels of oil that are yet to be discovered.

In 2006, Tullow began drilling its first well in Uganda and in the same year, five oil discoveries were made, marking the country’s first commercially viable petroleum discoveries. Oil companies have drilled close to 39 wells in western Uganda, only three of them have been found dry. Uganda’s total estimated capacity is 2.5 billion barrels, with a potential flow rate of 350,000 barrels-a-day. The value of Uganda’s oil windfall is estimated at $2 billion a year for the next 25 years, a huge sum when compared to Uganda’s annual budget of about $2.5 billion.

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