KAMPALA (AFP) — Italy’s ENI has withdrawn a bid to buy Ugandan oil reserves currently controlled by Canada’s Heritage Oil after Britain’s Tullow invoked preemption rights, Dow Jones reported Saturday.

“Eni today revoked the sale and purchase agreement... for the acquisition of Heritage’s 50 percent interest in blocks 1 and 3A in Uganda, for which Tullow has recently exercised its preemption right,” an Eni spokeswoman said.
Tullow, which currently controls approximately half of Uganda’s confirmed oil deposits, had invoked a previously negotiated right to purchase Heritage’s shares in the event the Canadian company chose to sell.
Ugandan state energy minister Simon Dujanga told AFP on Friday that ENI’s bid was still viable and that Tullow’s preemption rights were still being considered.
“Government has received Tullow’s notice of preemption, we are considering it, but we are not bound by it,” he told AFP.
Another bid involves offers from 18 other firms to purchase a percentage of the reserves controlled by Tullow.
Tullow and Heritage currently hold a 50 percent share in two Ugandan oil fields, while Tullow owns a third field outright.
Uganda’s northwest Lake Albert region is estimated to hold roughly two billion barrels of oil.
ENI said that resources originally planned for Uganda would now be assigned to other ENI projects, notably new projects at Zubair in Iraq and Junin 5 in Venezuela.