[ 2017-05-23 ]

MD,Tullow Ghana Limited, Mr Charles Darku

Tullow eyes new fields beyond Jubilee & TEN
Oil exploration company, Tullow is seeking to
invest in new exploration opportunities in the
country, aside its two major projects, Jubilee and
Tweneboa- Enyera- Ntomme (TEN) fields.

The new opportunities are expected to add new oil
reserves that will extend the production life of
the company in Ghana.

The Managing Director of Tullow Ghana Limited, Mr
Charles Darku told investors in Accra that a
significant resource base underpinned future
production, hence the decision by the company to
roll back some investments into new exploration
activities.

“We are looking to roll back some investments
into exploration. We are looking at two areas with
respect to that. One of them is to look for
additional reserves within our block.”

“We are working with the government to get the
necessary license to do some more exploration in
our own block and we are also looking at
opportunities in neighbouring countries,” he
said.

Mr Darku explained that discussions with the
government for the year would be focused on this.


“A big part of what we will be doing and
discussing with the government this year will be
on additional new explorations, additional
investments and of course growing our business,”
he said.

No dividend

The oil company, for the third time, did not pay
dividend to its shareholders. The shareholders,
who were visibly unhappy with the decision by the
company, did not mince words in pouring out their
displeasure at the forum.

The Group CEO of Tullow Oil, Mr Paul McDade,
however, explained that the board assesses the
dividend policy every year and determines whether
it was appropriate to continue paying or not.

He said while noting the concerns of shareholders,
the board would meet at the end of 2017 to look at
the issue of paying dividends.

“The board will assess the performance of the
company at the end of 2017 and decide what to be
paid if any dividend is to be paid,” he said.

The Chairman of Tullow Ghana, Mr Ike Duker said
the non-payment of dividend was occasioned by the
volatility of oil prices and its impact on
operations of players in the industry.

Tullow, he said, was looking at how the industry
would recover and oil prices pick up so it can
reinstate the payment of dividends.

TEN on stream

First oil from the Tweneboa- Enyera- Ntomme (TEN)
field - Tullow’s second major project in Ghana -
was delivered in August last year on time and
within budget.

Mr Darku said bringing TEN on stream continued to
build high-margin,which is long life cash flow for
the company in Ghana.

The company is projecting that the TEN field would
end the year with an average gross production
forecast of 50,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd),
lower than its plateau production rate of 80,000
bodp.

He said while the maritime dispute had placed a
ban on drilling of new wells, the company was
preparing itself to recommence drilling in 2018,
pending the ITLOS boundary decision later this
year.

“TEN is in the area where we have the maritime
dispute with Cote d Ivorie. It is a dispute
between two governments. As a result of that and
the moratorium that has been placed on drilling,
we have not been able to drill new wells since
production started. We are looking at resuming
drilling as soon as ruling is given, hopefully in
Ghana’s favour,” he said.

Jubilee Field production

Temporary measures put in by the company to
address the challenge with the turret bearing on
the Floating Production Storage Production (FPSO)
vessel, Kwame Nkrumah, is aiding oil production to
progress smoothly.

Mr Darku said aside the planned outage later this
year, which was expected to affect production, the
capacity of the Jubilee Field FPSO had not been
impacted by the turret bearing challenge.

“On Tuesday (May 17), we produced 100,000
barrels of oil, the capacity is still the same and
production itself would not be impacted. We will
end the year with the 68,000 barrels per day,”
he said.

Source - graphiconline.com.gh

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