Tullow scales back on Mauritania after costly Frégate well

Tullow Oil says it is moving its focus away from costly deep-water exploration and looking to less expensive prospects while it waits for new cash flow from the TEN development offshore Ghana in 2016. The announcement coincided with news that the Frégate well offshore Mauritania had delivered only modest success, opening a new oil play in the Late Cretaceous Turbidites at a cost of $200m. Tullow said Mauritania was just one of six exploration campaigns the company was pursuing and it would focus its near-term efforts on Norway and East Africa.