Tullow Oil Provides Operational Review for Ghana, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea & Côte d’Ivoire

Ghana

Jubilee

Gross production from the Jubilee field averaged c.70,600 bopd (net: c.25,100 bopd) in the first half of the year, slightly ahead of expectations due to good facility uptime and well performance. Full year guidance for Jubilee has been slightly adjusted upwards to c.74,300 bopd (net: c.26,400 bopd) following the decision to move the planned maintenance shut-down into the first half of 2022. Shifting the shutdown by approximately six months is expected to maximise the amount of work achievable as gas enhancement works planned for 2023 can be brought forward and an expected easing in COVID-19 restrictions will allow for a more efficient work programme to be carried out in the planned shutdown period.

The 2021 drilling programme continues and the first well of the programme, the J-56 producer, came onstream in July 2021 delivering rates ahead of expectations. The second well, the J-55 water injector, is expected to be online in the next few weeks and will be paired with an existing production well. During August, the rig drilled the top hole of the next Jubilee producer well, J-57-P, which is expected to be completed and brought online in early 2022. As a result of the new wells, average production from Jubilee is expected to increase in the second half of the year before growing further in 2022 as the drilling campaign continues.

TEN

Gross production from the TEN fields averaged c.37,000 bopd (net: c.17,400 bopd) in the first half of the year. This is broadly in line with expectations. Full year gross production from TEN is expected to be c.33,200 bopd (net: c.15,700 bopd) reflecting the underlying decline in the field during the year. Drilling of the Ntomme gas injector well (Nt-06) reached total depth this month with completion expected to be finished in October. When tied in later this year, the well is expected to mitigate against further decline and keep production broadly flat into 2022.

Operational improvement plan

The operational improvement plan in Ghana is an important part of our strategy to optimise reservoir performance, address production decline and support long term stable production. The plan is delivering good results across the key areas of facility uptime, gas offtake and water injection. The two FPSOs averaged 98% uptime in the first half of 2021, gas offtake from the Government of Ghana is averaging c.110 mmscfd and improved Jubilee water injection rates continue to be in excess of 200 kbwpd.

Non-Operated Portfolio

Net production from the non-operated portfolio averaged c.18,700 boepd in the first half of 2021, with contributions from Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire. Following the sale of assets in Equatorial Guinea and the Dussafu Marin permit in Gabon net production from the portfolio for the full year is expected to be c.17,900 boepd.

Fields in Gabon continue to offer high-return and fast payback opportunities. As such, capital expenditure has been re-allocated to accelerate the Simba expansion and an appraisal well at Tchatamba, into 2021. As part of the Simba expansion, the Simba-3 production well was brought onstream in early September and is performing in line with expectations. The Tchatamba south appraisal well, brought forward from 2022, is currently being drilled, and subject to results, will enable the Tchatamba south east development to commence in 2022, a year earlier than initially planned.

As previously announced in Tullow’s 2020 Full Year Results, following a major incident onboard the FPSO in the CNR International (CNR) operated Espoir field in mid-January 2021, production was shut in for approximately four weeks in the first half of the year. A further shut down of approximately two months is currently under way to carry out remediation work identified by BW Offshore, the FPSO operator, required for vessel class certification. The loss of production resulting from these shut-down periods is factored into the Group’s 2021 production guidance. CNR and Tullow are working together with BW Offshore on the optimum remediation plan, with work expected to commence in 2022. A further update will be provided in due course once remediation plans are finalised.

Decommissioning

Decommissioning activities continue in Mauritania.

In Mauritania, preparation is under way to commence the Group’s operated decommissioning programme of the Banda and Tiof fields with operations now expected to commence in early 2022, subject to Government approval. Non-operated decommissioning of the Chinguetti field is ongoing. The full abandonment of the wells was completed in August ahead of preparing to clear infrastructure from the seabed in 2022.