British oil explorer Heritage Oil is in talks to sell its Ugandan assets to Italian oil group Eni SpA for between $1.3-1.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said today. 

The source says talks are continuing and a deal could be announced as early as tomorrow. Heritage is examining paying a special dividend to return some of the proceeds to shareholders. The Sunday Times reported that Heritage will pay a special dividend of 90 pence to 100 pence per share, citing no sources. 

Heritage Chief Executive Tony Buckingham, who previously ran companies which hired out mercenaries in Africa, could get about $126 million from his 33% stake in the company. Heritage, which is in talks with Turkey's Genel Energy regarding a proposed $6 billion merger, is the operator and holds a 50% interest in two licences in Uganda. 

The fields are estimated to contain more than 700 million barrels of gross resources. Tullow Oil holds the remainder of the two licences located in the Albert Basin, close to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and is looking to sell up to 50% of its stake. A spokesperson for Eni declined to comment, while Heritage could not be reached. 

On Tuesday, Heritage said merger talks with Genel were ongoing and that it hoped to reach a formal agreement before the end of the year. It also said it was planning for early commercialisation of the Ugandan oil resources, with potential first production in 2011. - Reuters