Tullow Oil

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 deep water 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 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.In 2012, there were some production delays at the Jubilee field. The firm and its leadership were criticised in January 2013 after a decrease in its share price. This was reportedly because the company had failed to reach production targets at a project in Ghana because of "operational hiccups". This prompted the broker Investec to rate the company a "sell" and decrease its target price. Also causing problems were the oil fields known as the TEN that Tullow discovered off the coast of Ghana. The fields were a significant find but the projected development cost of the fields was estimated to exceed $5 billion, which is too much for a firm of Tullow's size.In April 2014, Tullow braced itself for a substantial investor backlash over excessive payouts to senior directors at the company. CEO Aidan Heavey came under particular scrutiny after it emerged that his pay had risen from £2.6 million to £2.8 million in 2013, despite Tullow's share price decreasing by as much as 30 percent during that period.On 17 March 2017, Tullow announced a $750 million rights issue as the oil producer struggled with a very low oil price.The company's founder Aidan Heavey retired from the board and Dorothy Thompson became the new chair of the board. CEO Paul McDade resigned in December 2019 and Dorothy Thompson was appointed as executive chair until a new CEO was appointed. In April 2020, Tullow announced that Rahul Dhir had been appointed as the new CEO with effect from July 2020.On 23 April 2020 Tullow announced that it had agreed the sale of its assets in Uganda to Total for US$575 million in cash plus post first oil contingent payments with an effective date of 1 January 2020.In 2021, Tullow Oil was ranked no. 49 in the Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index that covers 120 oil, gas, and mining companies involved in resource extraction north of the Arctic Circle.In a share-only merger, Tullow Oil acquired Capricorn Energy on 1 June 2022. After the deal closes, Tullow will own 53 percent of Capricorn. Capricorn Energy has assets in Mauritania and Egypt.