CNOOC officials visiting some of the oil wells
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has revealed that the Final Investment Decision (FID) on Kingfisher Project will be made early 2022, a decision if undertaken will determine if the Chinese firm will take part in oil production in the Albertine Graben.
The revelation was made by Zakalia Lubega, Head of Corporate Affairs at CNOOC Uganda Limited during a media engagement where he denied allegations that CNOOC delayed to take the Final Investment Decisions (FID), saying such a decision takes a process with series of activities like laws within which to operate, land acquisition, procurement to select contractors to undertake construction of oil wells and environmental impact assessments.
“We want to put it on the record that CNOOC never delayed the announcement of FID. FID isn’t an event, it is a process and that process has been ongoing across the board for all the partners. All of us are aware, some of the legislation is as new as two weeks ago or some of it hasn’t been assented to by the President,”Lubega said.
Final Investment Decision (FID) is the point in an energy project in which the company or companies owning and or operating the project approve or sanction the project’s future development.
“So we can’t take it that CNOOC delayed to announce the FID, but CNOOC was going through that process to ensure that when we make the announcement, there is nothing that is going to stop us. And now that everything seems to be ready, we can tell you that we are one leg into FID and the other leg is closely following and before you know it, the announcement will be made,” he added.
Asked to give specific timelines when the FID will be announced, Lubega replied, “When we make the announcements, probably sometime maybe next month next year, give us between 36-40months to get to first oil but the target is 2025 to be able to get into first oil.”
CNOOC is operating the Kingfisher Project situated in Kikuube and Hoima district and owns 28.33% stakes and part of the project to be undertaken will be the construction of a Central Processing Facility to produce 40,000 barrels of oil per day that will be drilled on four well-pads.
Lubega also gave an update on the recent snag the Company faced, that prompted them to reroute area for the construction of the Central Processing Plant, confirming that the rerouting is only happening in Kabaale Industrial Park, after Government acquired 29Square Miles for the development of the airport, refinery and other associated projects.
He explained that the feeder pipelines both for the Kingfisher project and Tilenga project, terminate into the Kabaale Industrial Park, which is the delivery point will only be affected when they enter into Kabaale Industrial Park.
He explained: “So the rerouting is only costing a small extra cost of understanding of the area where the route is which is maybe 2-5Kms and we are undertaking some geotechnical studies because some studies have been undertaken by the developers of the refinery so the costs are manageable and you can call them negligible and they do not in any way amount to costs that would worry the project implementation.”
CNNOC also revealed that they have acquired all the land required for the project, save for the construction of the resettlement houses that is ongoing.
Hope that by 2025 there will be oil production in Uganda.