LUKoil has begun talks with the government of Uganda to develop oil fields in the East African country. LUKoil has recently made an investment proposal to Ugandan President Mr Yoweri Museveni. The Uganda government intends to issue licenses to develop five oil fields near Lake Albert later this year. LUKoil said it was interested in the region but had not yet made the final decision on whether to take part in a tender. The Russian crude producer’s foreign projects operator, LUKoil Overseas, confirmed that the head company was interested in Ugandan projects. US-based Exxon Mobil Corp. and France-based Total which had negotiated with Uganda’s Dominion Petroleum Ltd have also been eyeing Uganda, where three exploration blocks with some 1 billion barrels of oil were recently discovered.