CEO of Tullow Oil Plc Rahul Dhir has cited governments’ effective handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as a contributory factor to the impressive performance of its Ghana operations.

Despite recording a $1.3 billion dollar loss after tax for the first six months of 2020, Ghana saw the strongest performance in the entire group producing an average of 54, 000 barrels of oil per day out of the total 77,700 barrels of oil per day produced from January to June.

In a virtual address to stakeholders on the Company’s half-year performance, Rahul Dhir said Tullow Oil was focused on continuous improvement to maintain the uptime of both FPSO Kwame Nkrumah and John Evans Attah Mills, in excess of 95%.

“On the operations side we delivered a strong performance I would say in H1. In Ghana in particular the performance is pleasing, and I would have to say we appreciate all the help we’ve had from the government of Ghana for their support. For two main things, for the gas offtake as well as the management of the pandemic. We’ve had outbreaks on offshore that have impacted both FPSO’s but we’ve managed these very effectively and there’s been no impact on our production.”

Tullow Oil Plc records $1.3 billion loss after tax

Tullow Oil has attributed its $1.3 billion dollar loss after tax for the first 6 months of 2020, on exploration write-offs and impairments totaling $1.4 billion dollars pre-tax.

According to the released 2020 half-year results, even though Tullow Oil PLC had a huge loss, it recorded revenue to the tune of $731 million dollars and a gross profit of $ 164 million dollars for the same period.

While the company’s production interests in Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Cote D’Ivoire averagely delivered 5,000, 16,800 and 1,900 barrels of oil per day respectively, Ghana delivered an average of 54, 000 barrels of oil per day out of the 77, 700 barrels of oil per day produced by the entire group.

Ghana’s strong production performance for the company in the first half of 2020, has continued in the second half of the year with the Jubilee field and the TEN field averaging 90,000 barrels of oil per day and 50,000 barrels of oil per day gross respectively through July and August. This has been driven by continued high facility uptimes and strong well performance across both fields including the Ntomme-09 well that came on-stream in early August.

Source: Citibusinessnews.com