Tullow expects profit to rocket

TULLOW Oil is expecting its most lucrative asset, the Jubilee field in Ghana, to further boost its overall profitability this year following its partial contribution to a more than four-fold increase in pre-tax profits last year.

The Irish-founded exploration company yesterday reported a pre-tax profit of $152 million (€109.3m) for 2010 — up from the $33m in 2009.

The increase was driven by a number of factors — including first oil production from Jubilee (commercialisation of that asset will have a bigger impact on Tullow’s 2011 balance sheet, with revenue expected to double), better than expected production from non-core geographical areas, like Britain and a rise in world oil and gas prices, driven by ongoing unrest in the Middle East.