Tullow finds ‘better than expected’ net pay at new well off Ghana

August 6, 2025, by Dragana Nikše

UK-headquartered Tullow Oil, an independent energy company with operations in West Africa, has brought onstream this year’s first well at its oilfield offshore Ghana.

Noble Venturer drillship; Source: Noble Corporation

As reported in the company’s 2025 Half Year Results, Tullow’s Ghana drilling campaign was restarted with the J72-P well, the first of two production wells planned for the Jubilee field in 2025. The well was brought onstream at the end of July. The next, J73-P, is scheduled to follow at the end of the year.

“In Ghana we have already taken actions to address the recent underperformance at Jubilee, with further optimisation potential identified. We have recommenced drilling and have successfully completed and brought onstream the first of two planned 2025 production wells at Jubilee, with better than expected net pay during drilling,” said Richard Miller, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Interim Chief Executive Officer of Tullow Oil.

The firm hired the Noble Venturer drillship for a six-well campaign offshore Ghana in December 2024. The 2014-built drillship, constructed at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in Korea, can operate in water depths of 12,000 feet, or 3,658 meters, and its maximum drilling depth is 40,000 feet, or 12,192 meters.

Go time for Noble drillship drawing closer as 4D seismic survey over African oil fields ends

Exploration & Production

Once the two wells have been drilled, which is expected to take 120 days, Noble Venturer’s assignment will be suspended until the end of 2025 to perform a planned special period survey (SPS) maintenance, including thruster replacement. After that, four firm wells are planned for 2026.

Additionally, processing of the 4D seismic, shot in Q1, is ongoing, and the UK firm believes this will help validate the locations for the later wells in the campaign. Tullow plans to reinforce this data set with the capture of an Ocean Bottom Node (OBN) seismic survey in Q4 2025, which will underpin infill drilling across the Jubilee and TEN fields.

According to Miller, a key milestone for his company was achieved with the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to extend WCTP and DWT licenses holding Ghana’s Jubilee and TEN fields to 2040, which is expected to increase reserves and unlock significant value from these fields.

In addition to including a commitment to work to increase the supply of gas to approximately 130 mmscf/d, the MoU also describes the intended further development plans for Jubilee. This entails the right to drill up to 20 additional wells in the field, representing an investment of up to $2 billion in Ghana over the life of the licenses.

Located in deepwater (1,100-1,700 meters) 60 kilometers offshore western Ghana, the Jubilee field was discovered in 2007, followed by first production in late 2010. Tullow is the license’s operator and 38.98% license holder, with Kosmos Energy (28.61%), Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (16.69%), and PetroSA (2.72%) as partners.

While the company remains active in Ghana, it has parted ways with its assets in another African country, Gabon. The sale of assets to the Gabon Oil Company (GOC) signalled the end of the oil and gas player’s operations in the African country after 21 years.