Tullow awarded nine North Sea blocks

Tullow Oil has announced that it was awarded nine operated exploration blocks in the UK twenty-second offshore licensing round.

The licence awards comprise seven blocks in Tullow’s core CMS area of the Southern North Sea (SNS) and two blocks in the North Viking Graben.

The seven SNS blocks comprise two traditional awards located to the south of Tullow’s Boulton field, and five "promote" awards in under-explored acreage to the west of Boulton.

A further two "promote" awards are located in the North Viking Graben to the east of the Tern Field. These awards build upon an exploration position established in the twenty-first round.

Tullow, as operator of these awards, plans to reprocess existing 2D and 3D seismic data as part of a full evaluation of the potential of this acreage. Tullow intends to commence this work in early 2005.

Chief Executive of Tullow Aidan Heavey commented: "Tullow is committed to developing and expanding its business in the North Sea and the award of these operated blocks is further evidence of our progress. We look forward to working with our partners to determine the prospectivity of these areas."