U.K. oil explorer Tullow Oil is seeking partners in a bid to acquire a new oil block in Ghana which launched its first oil bidding round in October, the company’s managing director Kweku Awotwi said on Dec. 6.

Tullow is already lead operator of two oil fields in Ghana including its flagship offshore Jubilee field, with cumulative output currently at around 160,000 barrels per day (bbl/d), Awotwi told reporters in Accra.

“We are looking for both local and international companies to partner with in the bidding rounds and we've spoken to a number of them,” he said.

“It is obvious there is good resource out there and the thinking has always been that you cannot do it alone,” Awotwi later told Reuters.

Tullow had to delay the development of its second field—Tweneboah, Enyenra, Ntomme (TEN)—due to a maritime border dispute between Ghana and its western neighbor Ivory Coast.

Awotwi said following a resolution of the dispute by the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea last year, Tullow had drilled three wells for TEN and two more for Jubilee. “Things are improving and production is going up,” he said, projecting that output could reach 180,000 bbl/d by the end of March next year.

Offshore