Ghana: Tullow Oil plans to pause drilling this year

Tullow Oil Plc and its Joint Venture Partners have announced their intention to take a drilling hiatus in Ghana later in 2024. This decision comes as they rely on the existing well stock to sustain production at Jubilee and TEN while anticipating a decline.

Drilling operations are expected to resume in 2025, with plans to initiate the procurement process for a new rig in 2024.

In its statement preceding the Group’s 2023 full-year results, scheduled for announcement on March 6, 2024, the company disclosed that five Jubilee wells, comprising three producers and two water injectors, are projected to commence operations in 2024.

This marks the completion of the planned activity outlined at the inception of the drilling program, achieving the milestone approximately six months ahead of schedule, thanks to outstanding drilling performance.

Commenting, Rahul Dhir, Chief Executive Officer of Tullow, said “Continued delivery of our business plan in 2023 resulted in a major inflexion point as we moved from a period of investment focus to delivery of free cash flow growth. We are on track to deliver c.$600 million free cash flow over the next two years to achieve our stated target of c.$800 million of free cash flow from 2023 to 2025 at $80/bbl. The debt facility agreed with Glencore is a strong endorsement of our business plan and we have no material uncovered debt maturities until May 2026. At the same time, our assets are expected to deliver production growth, while we continue to maintain our laser focus on operational excellence and capital discipline.”