Tullow Oil plc (LON:TLW) and Kosmos Energy Ltd (LON:KOS) are now looking forward to the restart of development drilling at the TEN project in West Africa following the outcome of a border dispute.
The partners, in respective stock market statements, informed investors that the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on Saturday delivered its judgement with regards to the maritime boundary dispute between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire – and the ruling does not impact upon the TEN project.
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Tullow said it will now work with the Ghanaian authorities to secure the necessary permits to restart development drilling.
"Tullow looks forward to continuing to work constructively with the Governments of both Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire following the conclusion of this process,” said Paul McDade, Tullow chief executive.
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“While the TEN fields have performed well during the period of the drilling moratorium, we can now restart work on the additional drilling planned as part of the TEN fields' plan of development and take the fields towards their full potential."
Operations are expected to resume before the end of this year, and subsequently Tullow expects to start increasing production volumes from TEN towards the target 80,000 barrels of oil per day (the design capacity of the project’s floating production vessel).