ENI, the Italian energy giant, may give a cash sweetener of up to $300m (£186m) to the Ugandan government to convince it to approve a $1.5 billion purchase of oilfields and thwart a rival offer from Tullow, the FTSE 100 exploration group.
The Italians’ potential offer is the latest twist in a bitter battle for control of three oil blocks in the Lake Albert basin in western Uganda.
Together the fields represent the largest onshore oil find in sub-Saharan Africa in decades. Their discovery, by a joint venture between Tullow and Heritage, another British oil firm, helped double Tullow’s share price last year, taking its value to £10.3 billion and making it one of Britain’s most valuable companies. READ MORE |Italians move in to scupper Tullow’s Ugandan deal – Times Online.
