Tullow’s tricky balancing act

TULLOW Oil may have been forced into writing off about $670 million last year, mostly due to dry wells, but it has no intention of changing its exploration-led strategy, chief executive Aidan Heavey says. On 13 February, the London-listed independent reported a 4% rise in pretax profit to $1.116 billion largely on the back of a farm down of two-thirds of its interests in Uganda to China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Total for about $2.9 billion. Heavey said: “2012 was a year of major progress. We enhanced the business with a basin-opening oil discovery in Kenya by adding prospective new licences in Africa and the Atlantic Margins, refinancing debt, and partially monetising our Ugandan assets.” Such farm-outs have been a key plank of Tullow’s success. “Tullow’s key strategy has been to focus on exploration rather than development and has partially divested from its Ugandan licences, preferring to focus on...