CNOOC stays silent on Tullow's Uganda exit

摘要

TULLOW Oil's $575 million deal to sell its stakes in Uganda's huge Lake Albert project to partner Total, announced late last week, hinges on whether China's CNOOC International, the other partner in the assets, exercises its pre-emption right. As Upstream went to press, CNOOC had not notified Uganda's government or its project partners of its intent to exercise this right, which the Chinese state-controlled player has exercised among the partnership before. Tullow said: "CNOOC has rights of pre-emption to acquire 50% of the Uganda interests on the same terms and conditions as Total Uganda." CNOOC exercised the same pre-emption right after Tullow previously agreed a farm-down of its assets to Total. However, that $900 million deal collapsed after expiring before an impasse over the treatment of capital gains tax was overcome.