Oil explorer Tullow says it had made its largest oil discovery in Uganda’s Lake Albert Rift Basin to date.
The find at the Giraffe 1 well has “excellent reservoir quality in all pay zones with moveable oil being recovered to surface”, the company said in a statement.
The find, in an area of the basin in western Uganda known as Block 1, is approximately 5kms from another discovery area known as Buffalo and Tullow said it now appears the two finds are linked.
"Combined with our other finds in the region, we have now clearly exceeded the thresholds for basin development," Tullow chief executive Aidan Heavey said.
Tullow runs Block 2 in the basin and has a 50 per cent equity stake with Heritage for Blocks 1 and 3a.
The well at Giraffe 1 has been suspended as a future producer. Tullow shares were down 7 percent at €7.45 in Dublin at 11.50am. Heritage shares were up almost 6 per cent at 230 pence in London.
In a note to investors Goodbody Stockbrokers said the potential of the Buffalo-Giraffe structure amounts to the largest discovery in Uganda to date.