Tullow, the oil company headed by Aidan Heavey, is to commence talks imminently with potential partners, including Chinese oil companies, to help develop its reserves on Lake Albert in Uganda.

Heavey said last week that they've had interest from "virtually all of the main companies" in becoming partners in the world class discoveries there. He said the priority will be to find a partner that "meets our needs to commercialise" and also the Ugandan government's need for oil. The Ugandan government will be involved in the talks with potential partners.

"We will not do something that the host government isn't happy with," he said.

Tullow is looking for a partner because the project will involve some refining and a pipeline which is "not our area of expertise".

They have yet to decide how much of the business to farm down.

Heavey said that Tullow has "an insight into a geological play" where they have "a competitive advantage over everybody else on and we've been building up the acreage positions on that".