Ghana TEN Gas Sales Delayed: Tullow
UK-listed Africa-focused producer Tullow Oil said July 25 it turned a first half 2017 net loss of $348mn into a 1H 2018 net profit of $55mn, but acknowledged slippage on a target date for Ghana gas sales.
Much of its report covered oil projects onshore east Africa and unsuccessful court and arbitration cases; it also said its exploration well on the high-impact Cormorant oil prospect offshore Namibia (PEL37) would begin this September and take about 30 days to drill. (See update on Namibia well at end of story below)
The company said that gas from the TEN fields, which it operates, was supplied to state Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas) during 1H2018 to replace Jubilee gas during its shutdowns of its Jubilee field but did not specify during which months. Jubilee gas is currently supplied free to Ghana Gas, so substitute TEN gas would have been supplied on the same basis.
Tullow added that commercial “gas sales from TEN are expected to commence later in this quarter” without specifying a month; three months ago it forecast this would happen in June while in its trading update late last month it had forecast this would happen in July.
It said its TEN field in Ghana and non-operated assets in Gabon, Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea all performed ahead of expectations; below-par Jubilee oil output was also likely to improve. Tullow’s global net production was 91,000 boe/d (1H 2017: 87,400 boe/d), includes the oil equivalent of its insurance payout receipts from Jubilee.
Tullow said its offshore Mauritania blocks C-3 and C-18 are potential late-2019 drilling candidates. The area is gas and oil rich, and this week Shell signed up for blocks C-10 and C-19 there.
In the UK, Tullow’s gas output averaged 2,800 barrels of oil equivalent/day net in 1H2018; it expects annualised UK gas of about 2,000 boe/d as the final producing fields cease production in 3Q.
CEO Paul McDade paid tribute to founder Aidan Heavey who retired from the company last week: “He founded Tullow 32 years ago as a small gas producer in Senegal and since then Tullow has had operations in 45 countries around the world including 20 countries in Africa.”
Update September 4: Tullow tweeted that it spudded the Cormorant well offshore Namibia late September 3; it is expected to drill to a total depth of 3,830 metres, in 545 meters of water.