UPDATE 1-Congo hands oil permit claimed by Tullow to rivals

(Recasts with ministry saying only one of two permits affected)

By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA, April 30 (Reuters) - Congo has awarded one of two Lake Albert oil prospecting permits claimed by Ireland's Tullow Oil (TLW.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to a rival consortium including South Africa's state oil company PetroSA, Congo's oil ministry said on Wednesday.

Tullow signed production sharing contracts for two promising prospecting blocks on Lake Albert in 2006.

But the ministry has insisted a contract signed by a deputy minister with Tullow and its Canadian partner Heritage Oil (HOC.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) was invalid because he had no authority to do so and because it never received presidential approval.

Dieumerci Mutombo, the ministry cabinet director who signed a statement published in Congolese newspapers on Wednesday, told Reuters that rights to only one of the two blocks had been awarded to the new consortium.

"We withdrew one block. We left them the other, and we asked them to regularise it. We have already said that the blocks have now been separated, so there needs to be a new production partnership agreement," he said.

"Our position is that we cannot give the entire lake to a single operator," Mutombo said.

The blocks adjoin Congo's border with Uganda, close to three Ugandan oil prospecting blocks held by Tullow, two of which it also holds jointly with Heritage.