Tullow, Kosmos Cheered by ITLOS Maritime Ruling

Tullow Oil and its US partner Kosmos Energy have said it is full speed ahead with exploratory drilling offshore western Ghana’s TEN oil and gas fields, now that an international tribunal has sanctioned their plans.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), delivering its final ruling September 23 2017 in Hamburg, upheld Ghana’s interpretation of the maritime boundary over that of adjacent Cote d’Ivoire, ending a more than two-year dispute between the two west African neighbours.

UK-listed Tullow said: “The new maritime boundary as determined by the tribunal does not affect the TEN fields as per the map below.”

Kosmos concurred: “The maritime boundary delimited by the Special Chamber’s decision has no impact on the TEN field’s production or reserves or otherwise on the company’s interests in Ghana.”

Tullow added that it will “now work with the government of Ghana to put in place the necessary permits to allow the restart of development drilling in the TEN fields. Tullow expects to resume drilling around the end of the year which will allow production from the TEN fields to start to increase towards the FPSO [floating production & offtake ship’s] design capacity of 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day.”

Tullow had said in 1H 2017 results in July that the company had successfully trialled the export of gas from the TEN fields to shore in Ghana. The bulk of their production however remains oil.

Tullow CEO Paul McDade said: “While the TEN fields have performed well during the period of the drilling moratorium, we can now restart work on the additional drilling planned as part of the TEN fields’ plan of development and take the fields towards their full potential.”

He added that Tullow “looks forward to continuing to work constructively with the governments of both Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire following the conclusion of this process.” Tullow has a 21.33% interest in Cote d’Ivoire’s offshore Espoir field (licence CI-26) operated by Canada’s CNR, although this is much less significant than its operating interests in the TEN and Jubilee fields offshore Ghana.

Tullow map of TEN fields and maritime boundary, above (Map credit: Tullow Oil)

ITLOS map of the maritime boundary between Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire issued September 23 2017, below (Map credit: ITLOS)

ITLOS map of the maritime boundary between Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire issued September 23 2017, above (Map credit: ITLOS)

Mark Smedley