News

March 11, 2010

Despite Profits Slump, Tullow Oil Remains The One To Watch With 30 Wells Planned For 2010

Tullow Oil is now in countdown mode to first oil from one of the company-making African discoveries that have catapulted the E&P into the FTSE100. Phase 1 of the Jubilee field development offshore Ghana is due onstream in Q4 2010 and the company reports that the project remains within its US$3.1 billion budget: what makes this particularly impressive is that this means there will be first oil 40 months following discovery, a new benchmark for the deepwater industry and a real feather in the cap both for Tullow and Ghana, two newcomers to the deepwater business. With Phase 1 alone set to deliver 120,000 barrels per day, this project will provide a material boost to the company’s production profile from late 2010 onwards.

And there’s much more to come, with the company on Wednesday indicating that its discoveries offshore Ghana could be much bigger than first expected with last year’s drillbit success pointing to a potential resource of 4.5 billion barrels.  The company has upped its 2P reserves estimate on the Tweneboa field to 400 million barrels from 250 million barrels.

Uganda is the other flagship project in the portfolio.  Here, the company has already discovered more than 800 million barrels...