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Mr Kweku Awotwi, CEO, Tullow Ghana
Mr Kweku Awotwi, CEO, Tullow Ghana

Tullow delivers strong first half results

Tullow Oil has delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2018, as its revenue increased from US$788 million in the first half of 2017 to US$905 million for the same period this year.

The company also recorded a profit of US$55 million in the first half of the year, compared to a loss of US$348 million for the same period last year.

The strong performance is attributed to the ramp up in oil production at the Jubilee and TEN fields.

The company is currently producing about 175,000 barrels of oil per day.

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Tullow Oil, Mr Les Wood, announced this when the company took its turn at the Stock Exchange’s Facts Behind the Figures  in Accra today.

He said the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation and exploration expense (EBITDAX) also increased from US$544 million in the first half of 2017 to US$764 million.

Free cash flow also grew from US$205 million to US$401 million over the same periods, while capital investment also increased from US$77 million to US$145 million.

“Overall, we are delivering solid production and generating material free cash flow,” Mr Wood stated.

“We have put a number of challenges behind us and we are focused on increasing production in West Africa and progress our East Africa developments.

 We are also commencing a multi-year exploration campaign across South America and Africa,” he added.

Strategy

On strategy, he said, the company intended to be a sustainable, self-funded business that delivered returns to its shareholders through its share prices and dividends.

“We also want to build a strong balance sheet with a strong cash flow from operations that will allow us to make investment decisions that will lead to exploration success,” he stated.

“We will continue to have a portfolio that can operate in a flexible range of between US$200 and US$600 million,” he added.

He said the company remained on track to meet its capital expenditure of US$460 million for 2018.

Production target

The Managing Director of Tullow Ghana, Mr Kweku Awotwi, said the impressive performance of the company was not as a result of the rise in crude oil prices but rather due to an increase in oil production.

He said the strong performance had more to do with improving efficiencies in the FPSO and fixing problems that the company initially encountered.

“At the beginning of the TEN field project, we were producing just about 100,000 barrels per day and now that we have TEN on stream, we are seeing close to 170,000 barrels per day,” he stated.

“We expect to end the year at a 180,000 barrels per day,” he added.

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