Thanks for sharing the response. This is not surprising, as the previous Nov. trading updates from Tullow have little/no specifics on particular license drilling plans (and sometimes little info on next years Capex); on the other hand you can see much more detail in the Jan updates, so in my mind this is the key one to look at.
Jugs commented on the 2016 Capex investment plan reduction. While this is indeed sizable on a total Capex basis ($1.9B to $1.2B); it appears the exploration Capex will be little changed ($250M in 2015 and about $240M currently planned in 2016). Most of the total reduction is due to sizable production and develpoment spending for Ghana in 2015 (TEN and Jubilee fields) TEN comes into production in 2016 and should significantly increase cash flow, and has $0.8B gross reduced Capex. TLW looks to be trying to delay East Africa development spending until 2017.
We should all probably remember that Tullow has consistently said (for the past year) that a Guinea drilling resumption depends on two things- Ebola and completion of discussions with the government. Ebola we know is not eradicated yet but looks to be getting close with a new case free week or two now under the belt. The Guinea government discussion we have no news on as far as I know, but I suspect that, with the elections just completed, the way might be cleared to wrap them up. Just my speculation/guess but I also guess that Tullow will be looking for a re-affirmation of the PSC under the new Petroleum Code and possibly an extension of the exploration period- these would both be good things.
JMHO
