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Tullow drilling in Guinea, etc in 2014~!

[PapaFritz]

Tullow on track to produce record levels of oil this year

Updated: 17:16, Wednesday, 13 November 2013

 

 

Tullow Oil issues upbeat interim management statement

Africa-focused Tullow Oil today confirmed that it had restarted operations in northern Kenya on November 8 after reaching a deal with local leaders to prevent a repeat of protests that halted work last month.

Residents of the remote northern Turkana community ,supported by a local politician, marched on Tullow operations on October 26 to demand more jobs and other benefits.

The government said protesters ransacked one site, which Tullow works on with partner Africa Oil.
              
Paul McDade, Tullow's chief operating officer, said the company had agreed to "accelerate" training programmes and other community involvement schemes.
              
In a trading statement, Tullow said it was on track to produce a record quantity of oil by the end of 2013. 

The company said it would increase production by the equivalent of 200 million barrels of oil by the end of 2013. It has several new exploration projects planned for 2014. 

It said today that with wells in Kenya, Mauritania, Norway, Ethiopia and Guinea planned for the first half, there is "much to look forward to".

Tullow also gave an update on a number of key wells worldwide. It flagged a weak market for the mature southern North Sea assets it is trying to sell - extending the process over the next 18 months and breaking up the business to sell it in smaller pieces.
              
"We realised, having gone through the initial process, the market for those types of assets is a bit weaker than we anticipated. Potential buyers can see the value there but really struggle a little bit to structure the finance around it," McDade told Reuters.
              
The future health of the North Sea - as its productivity begins to wane and the cost of running aging infrastructure escalates - has become part of a hot political debate on energy prices and supply security in Britain.
              
Tullow is selling out because it sees itself as mainly an explorer and an opener of new basins.
              
Tullow said a result on its Tultule 1 well in Ethiopia was expected by the end of November, and that its Fregate well in Mauritania would reach total depth in December.

In French Guiana, one of Tullow's big hopes and a closely watched new oil province, Tullow said its Zaedyus-1 had reached total depth and evaluation of the well was ongoing.
              
Wessex Exploration, a partner in the Guyane Maritime Project along with operator Shell and Total, said the well had been plugged and abandoned after finding no evidence of hydrocarbons.
              
McDade said this was in line with expectations as the well had been drilled to ascertain the limits of the resource. The partners now plan to work on integrating and assessing the data collected.