Tullow hits 85pc success rate in African prospects
Tullow has had a string of exploration successes in Uganda, Ghana, and Sierra Leone. Photo: Bloomberg News
Thursday November 12 2009
Tullow Oil has enjoyed an 85pc success rate on exploration wells drilled since January and expects its oil production this year to average about 58,000 barrels a day, the company said yesterday.
In an interim management statement covering the period from July 1, 2009, to November 11, 2009, Tullow also said it would sell up to 50pc of its interests in Uganda and that the Jubilee development in Ghana was on track to deliver first oil by the end of next year.
Highlights during the period included a string of successes in Uganda, Ghana, and Sierra Leone, where the Venus-B-1 discovery struck oil some 700 miles west of the Jubilee field.
Tullow said the Venus result raised hopes that numerous Jubilee-type prospects in West Africa and South America would also contain oil. The hope is that its South American acreage is a "mirror image" of that found on the African side of the ocean.
Already Tullow has identified numerous Jubilee-type leads on its Guyana licence, enough to encourage Shell to snap up a 33pc stake, with an option to acquire a further 12pc. Tullow is looking to complete a further farm-out here by the year end. A major seismic survey of the acreage started in September.
Back in Ghana, drilling of Mahogany-4 got under way in September. The first of a three-well Jubilee appraisal programme, it extended the field boundary eastwards and encountered additional deeper lying oil reservoirs.
Mahogany-Deep-2 is now appraising the southern extent of the field while Mahogany-5 will start early next year.
Also in Ghana, the first appraisal well on the Odum discovery will start this month, followed by an appraisal of the new Tweneboa prospect, a field which Tullow believes could be as large as Jubilee.
Tullow said excellent progress was being made on the Jubilee development project and that first oil was set to flow by the end of 2010.
In October, the group opened a data room to promote the sale of up to 50pc of its interests in the Ugandan Lake Albert Rift Basin.
Tullow said it would remain as operator on the project but was looking for a "like-minded partner" who would bring downstream expertise to the project.
The sale has excited considerable interest in the industry, with reports that Tullow has submitted a list of 10 potential bidders to the authorities. A decision on the most suitable partner is expected early in the New Year.
Since early July, three successful exploration wells have been drilled there: Ngara-1; Wahrindi-1; and Ngassa-2.
"With further appraisal drilling, Ngassa-2 has the potential to be the largest discovery in the basin to date," it said. Further drilling will get under way early next year.
- Pat Boyle
Irish Independent
