Tullow Oil (LON: TLW), the London-listed oil and gas producer focused on Ghana’s Jubilee and TEN fields, raised its full-year 2026 free cash flow guidance to $170-250 million after new wells outperformed expectations at both fields and oil price realisations came in stronger than planned. Shares touched 15.42p in early trading on Wednesday before easing back as the pre-market pop from Tuesday’s rally faded.
The stock traded at 15.088p, down 1.5% against Tuesday’s close of 15.32p, having ranged between 14.34p and 15.42p intraday. That leaves the shares well above their 52-week low of 3.51p but still short of the 19.42p high.
In a trading statement ahead of its 28 September half-year results (information not audited and may be subject to further review and amendment) Tullow said group production averaged c.43.7 kboepd in the first half, above expectations at both Jubilee and TEN, with FPSO uptime — the proportion of time the floating production vessel operated without shutdown — running above 99%. Gross Jubilee output reached c.70.8 kbopd (c.27.6 kbopd net) and TEN produced c.14.8 kbopd (c.8.1 kbopd net), both ahead of plan.
The upgraded guidance of $170-250 million compares with the previous $70-175 million range. First-half free cash flow itself was just $4 million, held down by $68 million of one-off refinancing costs and $64 million of cash interest, but oil realisations of around $93 a barrel through July, together with progress recovering Ghana government receivables, underpinned the improved outlook. Gross debt fell by roughly $100 million to c.$1.6 billion, with net debt at $1.4 billion and liquidity headroom above $250 million at the end of June.
Chief executive Ian Perks said: “This momentum, together with stronger than expected oil price realisations underpins our upgraded full year free cash flow guidance of $170-250 million at $70-100/bbl.”
Tullow now expects 2026 production at the top end of its 34-42 kboepd guidance range and plans to lift 14 cargoes over the year, two more from Jubilee than originally guided. The half-year results on 28 September will be the next test of whether the improved cash generation continues.