Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Europe’s largest oil company, joined Tullow Oil Plc (TLW) to explore for oil and gas in new frontiers in the Atlantic Ocean.
The companies signed the memorandum of understanding after making the first offshore oil discovery off French Guiana last year with their Zaedyus well together with Total SA. (FP) Tullow already has several exploration partnerships with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC), Statoil ASA (STL), Total and CNOOC Ltd. (883) in Africa and Latin America and plans to secure more in the future, said Chief Operating Officer Paul McDade.
“We are looking at a certain number of areas,” McDade said in a phone interview, declining to specify regions. “Shell will be a very good technical partner.”
Tullow, which has been among the world’s most successful explorers in recent years with discoveries in Ghana and Uganda, has been looking for Equatorial Atlantic partnerships to reduce risks and cut costs. BP Plc (BP/) Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said in October that the world’s largest oil companies had overlooked some of the world’s biggest basins.
Tullow plans to drill about 40 exploration and appraisal wells worldwide this year, it said today in a statement.
“We are planning in the future to be as aggressive as we have been in the past in respect of big-impact exploration,” McDade said.
Shell confirmed the deal in an e-mailed statement.
