Project Profile
Value: US$4 billion
Location: Albertine Rift Basin, northwest of Uganda, along the shores of Lake Albert
Reserves: 800 million boe
Processing capacity: 20,000 barrels per day (b/d) that should be expanded to 40,000 b/d in a second phase
Length: 85 kilometres
Start-up Year: 2018
After resolving tax and refinery disagreements between Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) from UK, Total from France, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) from China and the Uganda Government, the Kingfisher project is ready to take off. The Kingfisher project is to develop the previously called Block-3A located in the northwest of Uganda along the shores of Lake Albert. Discovered in 1938, the Albert Lake Rift Basin had been left unexplored during 60 years. Tullow took first interests in Uganda in 2004 and performed the Kingfisher-1 discovery in the Block-3A in 2006. Then Tullow acquired 100% interests of the Block-2 in 2007 and of the Block-1 in 2010.
Along this period of exploration, the estimation of the recoverable reserves were continuously revised upward to actually exceed 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) concentrating approximately 60% of all the Uganda reserves. In this context, Tullow offered in 2011 to share interests with Total and CNOOC through a Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) that should leave each partner with 33% ownership. In 2012, the Uganda Government approved the farm-out agreement between Tullow and its partners where CNOOC takes 33% of the Block-3A, renamed Kingfisher, and is the operator in partnership with Total and Tullow. The development capital expenditure of the block is US$4 billion.
The central processing facility should be located at Buhuka. In a first phase, this central processing facility should have a capacity of 20,000 barrels per day (b/d) that should be expanded to 40,000 b/d in a second phase. In this first phase the crude oil will be exported through 85 kilometres pipeline to a greenfield refinery to be located in Hoima. In parallel, Tullow, Total and CNOOC are working on different alternatives of export pipelines:
- 250 kilometres to Jinja
- To Tanzania coast in turning around the Great Lakes
- To Mombasa or Lamu on the Kenya coast
With the FEED contract to be awarded soon, CNOOC and its partners Tullow and Total expect Kingfisher (Block-3A) and the Hoima refinery to start commercial operations in 2017.
Operators:
CNOOC: Operator with 44.12% interest
Total: 44.12% interest
Tullow Oil: 11.76% interest
Contractors:
Petrofac: Pre-front end engineering and design (pre-FEED)