By Frank Kamuntu
Kampala: Total’s Chief Finance Officer Jean-Pierre Sbraire said on Wednesday that it was too early to say when a final investment decision on its Uganda oil project would be taken, potentially delaying the decision that was initially expected last year.
Sbraire told analysts during a conference call after the French oil major’s third-quarter result that Total was still committed to the project but there were still some issues holding back the decision.
“The project is technically mature. We are ready to launch but we recently faced some difficulties with the authorities,” Sbraire said.
Total had planned to buy some of Britain’s Tullow Oil’s stake in the 230,000 barrel-per-day project but that deal was called off due to a tax dispute with the Ugandan authorities.
“We remain fully committed to the development but we’ll see; at present time it is a bit too early to assess when the Final Investment Decision (FID) could be taken for the project,” Sbraire noted.
Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanne said earlier this year that Ugandan would be a personal priority in 2019 after setbacks led to a delay on the FID in 2018
