Tullow confirms production guidance

Tullow Oil has reiterated its full-year production guidance of 72,000-78,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day after confirming that its flagship project has returned to full output levels.

Production at the Jubilee field, off the coast of Ghana, had been constrained by a gas compression issue, which lowered average production from around 110,000 barrels of oil per day to 65,000.

In an operational update, published yesterday, the Irish-founded exploration firm confirmed that the issue had been rectified and Jubilee output is back at full level, ahead of schedule. Tullow is the field’s operator and has a 35.5% stake in the asset.

“With production back to normal at Jubilee we expect to meet our full-year production guidance,” said chief executive Aidan Heavey.

Despite the good news from Jubilee, and a slight increase in Tullow’s share price, the company also announced the failure of two low-risk wells in Suriname and Norway.

Ghana, however, is contributing about 49% of Tullow’s forecast production for the current year.

Tullow also noted that the Ugandan and Kenyan governments have selected a route for a crude oil export pipeline linking the two countries to international markets.

“We believe that agreement will be helpful in attracting potential partners and finance for the development of the 2.3 billion barrels discovered in the region,” said Caren Crowley of Davy Stockbrokers.

Elsewhere, yesterday, Irish explorer PetroNeft Resources — which is active in the Siberian region of Russia — said that production from its licence 61 asset in the area has increased by 41% to date, this year, with current gross production amounting to around 2,600 barrels per day.

Latest drilling was done using a cost-effective technique, which the company believes can be replicated in other areas of the licence to increase flow rates.

“Our operational progress is gathering momentum and this is evident in our sustained drilling and production growth,” said chief executive Dennis Francis.