Tullow Awarded 5 North Sea Offshore Production Licences

22nd July 2002

Tullow Oil plc ("Tullow"), the independent oil and gas exploration, development and production company, announces that its wholly-owned subsidiary Tullow Exploration Limited ("TEL") has been awarded five Seaward Production Licences on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf ("UKCS"). The licence awards, announced by the Minister for Industry and Energy, Brian Wilson, on 18th July comprise a total of seven UKCS blocks or part blocks, totalling approximately 340 sq. kms. net to TEL. It represents one hundred percent success for the applications made in this competitive licence round. The awards are listed below.

Six of the blocks are in the Southern Gas Basin in close proximity to the Caister Murdoch System ("CMS") infrastructure in which TEL has a significant interest. There are undeveloped gas discoveries on two of the blocks, and a number of significant exploration leads, all of which offer the potential for early commercial production through CMS, in the case of exploration or appraisal success. The work programmes allow for the reprocessing of existing 3-D seismic data or the acquisition of new 3-D surveys, with the option to drill or drop the acreage after the data has been thoroughly assessed.

The seventh block is located in the prolific Central North Sea/Outer Moray Firth oil province. This is in partnership with the operator of the Buzzard field, the largest North Sea discovery for a number of years. This represents TEL's first acreage in this area and the block has been awarded on a similar work programme to the other blocks.

Aidan Heavey, Managing Director, Tullow Oil plc, said:

"We are delighted with this major award of very prospective acreage, which marks a significant step in capitalising on the success of our purchase of the BP/ARCO assets, completed last year. It fits well with our strategy of growth from around our core areas of North Sea infrastructure. It also gives us our first opportunity to expand into the oil province of the Central North Sea. We look forward to an exciting exploration and appraisal programme."