Special topics
Tullow Oil plc has said it expects end of April net debt to be $4.5 billion and unutilised debt capacity and free cash of $1.3 billion.
Capex guidance for full-year 2016 has been revised down by $0.1 billion to $1.0 billion with further savings expected, Tullow said in its latest operational update.
The oil explorer said its routine six-monthly Reserve Based Lending redetermination process has been completed, while debt capacity of $3.5 billion has been secured.
Also, Tullow has extended its Revolving Corporate Facility by 12 months to April 2018, with an initial committed amount of $800 million as of April 2017.
An accordion feature has been agreed with Lenders for an additional amount of $200 million.
Meanwhile Tullow said East Africa Governments have agreed to develop resources in Uganda and Kenya with separate export pipelines.
It noted that ongoing assessment of the recently completed South Lokichar appraisal programme in Kenya indicates potential to increase recoverable resources up to 750 million barrels with further exploration potential supporting an upside of 1 billion barrels.
Tullow also added that working hydrocarbon system has been discovered with the Cheptuket-1 exploration well in Kenya’s Kerio Valley Basin.
Meanwhile, Tullow said it intends resuming production in Ghana’s Jubilee Oil Fields in a “few days”, since the damage of FPSO Kwame Nkrumah’s turret bearing, which has halted production for over a month, is being almost fixed. It also noted that the Group’s TEN Project is over 90 per cent complete.
Aidan Heavey, CEO of Tullow said in the update on Thursday April 28 that: “It has been a very busy start to the year for Tullow. In West Africa, we have made excellent progress with the TEN Project which remains on time and on budget while a highly experienced project team are dealing with the turret issues on the Jubilee field FPSO.”
“Following the decision of the Kenyan and Ugandan Presidents to develop standalone export pipelines, we now have much greater clarity and certainty around oil production in both countries. In Kenya, our appraisal campaign has also been very successful with ongoing assessment indicating increased resource estimates. Finally, I am very pleased to announce the completion of our RBL re-determination and the extension of our RCF. This demonstrates the continued strong support of our lending banks and is an important sign of confidence in Tullow’s excellent asset portfolio.”
Source: http://classfmonline.com/1.9004664