By Mary Karugaba

TULLOW Oil has discovered more oil and natural gas deposits at Kasamene-1 exploration well in Butiaba region in the Lake Albert Rift Basin.

Aidan Heavey, the chief executive, in a statement yesterday, called the discovery the most important result to date in the Butiaba exercise.

“While the deep exploration objective in the Kingfisher 2 well at this location did not find additional hydrocarbons, this well has proved a significant discovery.”

He said the result showed potential for more discoveries in the Victoria Nile delta area.

The company announced over 31 metres of oil and at least six metres of gas in the area.

Kasamene-1 is the second successful test within the Albert Rift Basin. The first being the Ngenge 1 oil well.

The latest discovery is one of the many in the western region since the first was announced in June 2006.

Statistics from the Ministry of Mineral Development indicates that the country currently has 300 million barrels of oil.

Uganda is scheduled to start an early production scheme in 2009 to generate over 4,000 barrels of oil per day. The oil will be refined into heavy fuel for use in power generation.