Tullow withdraws from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Mozambique blocks

Oil and gas exploration company Tullow today in its half yearly report said it would not be renewing licences for offshore blocks in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Mozambique.

Tullow said that after evaluating potential options in Liberia and Sierra Leone, it eventually decided against renewing its licence interests, adding it would exit its position there.

The company’s interest in LB-15 in Liberia expired in June 2014 and its interest in SL-07B-11 in Sierra Leone will expire in August 2014, following which Tullow will have no licence interests in either country.

On the eastern side of the African continent, in Mozambique Tullow also said that it, together with its partners, decided not to drill more wells in the Block 2 & 5  offshore acreage.

The group, founded in the Irish town of Tullow in 1985, last year had two unsuccessful wells in the Area 2. First, the Cachalote well encountered natural gas volumes not enough to be commercial on a standalone basis. After that, the Discoverer Americas dynamically positioned drillship drilled Buzio-1 well, which eventually turned out to be a dry hole with no hydrocarbons.

Following further technical analysis, Tullow and the partnership decided not to drill a further prospect in the Block 2 & 5 acreage. The licence expired in June 2014 and Tullow has now exited the position.

Elsewhere in Africa, Tullow said it was confident its main asset, the Jubilee field, would achieve its full year average gross production target of 100,000 bopd.

The field, located offshore Ghana, achieved average gross production of approximately 103,000 bopd for the first half of 2014 in line with expectations.