- France's Total (TOT +0.8%) and U.K.'s Tullow Oil (OTCPK:TUWLF, OTCPK:TUWOY) are issued eight oil production licenses in Uganda, which is seeking to move more quickly toward crude production.
- Commercial oil reserves were discovered in Uganda a decade ago, but production has been delayed amid disputes over taxation and field development strategy.
- Uganda's energy minister says the companies, together with China's Cnooc (NYSE:CEO), are expected to invest $8B to develop the oil fields, which will involve drilling more than 500 oil wells and producing 200K-230K bbl/day of crude; the country's total oil assets are believed to contain ~6.5B barrels of crude.