Tullow Oil

Formation and development

The company was founded by Aidan Heavey in 1985, in Tullow, Ireland, as a gas exploration business operating in Senegal. Tullow listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange and Irish Stock Exchange in 1986 and the FTSE 100 index in September 2007.

In 2000, Tullow acquired £201 million worth of gas fields and infrastructure in the North Sea from BP. At the same time, Tullow re-registered in the UK. In May 2004, Tullow completed the Energy Africa acquisition for $570 million.

In 2006, the company began drilling its first well in Uganda and began exploiting the Lake Albert region. In 2007, Tullow drilled two deepwater wells offshore Ghana, discovering the massive Jubilee Oil Field.

In February 2010, the company initiated a "tax planning" exercise that was criticised by Heritage's counsel during the Heritage/Tullow court case in 2013, as an attempt to reduce the amount of tax the firm was liable to pay in Uganda. Richard Inch, Head of Tax at Tullow, firmly rejected the criticism while giving evidence in this case. In November 2010, the Jubilee field was brought on to production, in record time, some 40 months after its discovery. A new major discovery was also made at the Enyenra (Owo) and Tweneboa fields in Ghana during the year.

In 2011, the company bought into 25 Dutch, North Sea Gas fields and in March 2012, a new oil reserve was discovered in Kenya. In 2012, the company encountered non-commercial reservoirs at its Teak-4A well off Ghana, leading to the well having to be plugged and abandoned. Tullow completed the purchase of Heritage Oil's licences in the Lake Albert area in 2010, for $1.45bn, and on 21 February 2012, completed a farm down of two-thirds of its interests to Total and CNOOC for $2.9 billion US. But Tullow and its partners have yet to reach agreement with the Government of Uganda over a plan to develop Lake Albert including a proposed refinery and export-pipeline.