UPDATE: Heritage Completes Sale Of Uganda Blocks To Tullow

27th Jul 2010 08:30

(Adds detail, background.) By Spencer Swartz LONDON (Dow Jones)--After months of delay, Canada's Heritage Oil PLC (HOIL.LN) said Tuesday it has completed the sale of its two Uganda oil blocks to Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) for $1.45 billion and said it intends to pay a special dividend of up to 100 pence a share next month. The announcement, which comes after the Ugandan government conditionally approved the sale earlier this month, paves the way for Tullow and its partners, China's CNOOC (CEO) and French oil giant Total SA (TOT), to move forward with developing the two oil blocks. "We will now be pushing ahead with finalizing development plans with our partners and those should be in place by the end of the year," said Tullow chief financial officer Ian Springett said in an interview. The total sale price includes $1.35 billion in cash and a "contractual settlement" payment of amount of $100 million. Heritage shares were up 11p at 421p while Tullow's stock traded up 10p at 1249p at 0713 GMT. -By Spencer Swartz, +44 207 842 9357; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 27, 2010 03:30 ET (07:30 GMT)