Tullow Oil joins FTSE Index

TULLOW Oil, which has oil and gas interests on four continents, is on course to enter the FTSE 100 Index later this month.

Shares in the company have risen sharply due to its continuing success in building its oil and gas reserves.

Valued at £3.3 billion (€4.8bn), analysts said Tullow was likely to be ranked 75th among the FTSE’s blue-chip listing in London.

New rankings due within days should see Tullow take its place on the FTSE 100 official listing for the first time when the new ratings become effective towards the end of September.

Tullow Oil is listed in Dublin and London and its key activities are oil and gas exploration and production.

Shares in the company have risen sharply over the past 12 months boosted by strong exploration results from Africa in particular.

Carphone Warehouse is also due to make it to the FTSE 100 when the quarterly review is unveiled in just under two weeks.

Yesterday’s closing share price ranks Carphone Warehouse as the 95th biggest listed company in Britain by market capitalisation.

Tullow Oil is 75th with the newly merged house builder Taylor Wimpey, 79th — also a contender to jon the FTSE elite.

Two other Irish exploration groups, the Tony O’Reilly controlled Providence Resources and Pan Andean Resources headed by entrepreneur Dr John Teeling, have announced further developments.

Providence and its partners have announced the first production from the A1 well at the High Island A268 development in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Texas. This well was drilled in January 2007, and its successful drilling result initiated the fast-track development of High Island A268.

First production started last week, quickly following on the A2 well that began its first production last week.

Pan Andean has made a commercial natural gas discovery at an exploration well drilled on High Island 52 in the Gulf of Mexico. The well was drilled to the target depth of 8,700ft and encountered more than 160ft net pay of hydrocarbon column in three separate sections.

Production casing has been set and flow lines are being prepared for production, which is expected to commence at an initial level of five million cubic feet of gas per day.