Tullow Oil targets South American drilling round

Tullow Oil is to turn its focus towards South America later this year, aiming to start drilling offshore Suriname by October at an area close to where super-major ExxonMobil this week made a significant discovery off the coast of Guyana.

Tullow — which remains chiefly focused on Africa — said, yesterday, that drilling at the Araku-1 well, of which it owns 30%, should begin in the fourth quarter at a cost of around $14m (€12m).

The Irish-founded exploration company has also announced the farming out of 20% of another block it owns in Suriname to Israeli explorer Ratio Exploration.