Tullow Oil publishes details of payments to governments

Irish oil explorer paid UK government $51m in income tax in respect of North Sea assets

The Kingfisher well, Block 3A, jointly owned by Tullow Oil Plc and Heritage Oil Plc, sits at the Lake Albert Rift Basin, in Uganda.
The Kingfisher well, Block 3A, jointly owned by Tullow Oil Plc and Heritage Oil Plc, sits at the Lake Albert Rift Basin, in Uganda.

Tullow Oil has published details of payments made to governments last year in respect of its activities in several countries.

The Irish company, which is based in London, revealed total payments to nations in terms of production entitlement, income taxes, dividends and licence fees amounted to $209 million (€183 million).

This was down on the $295 million paid in 2015 and reflects the decrease in oil prices globally.

About a third of all the money remitted to governments ($71 million) came in the form of income tax.

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The largest single income tax payment ($51 million) was paid to the UK government in respect of its North Sea assets.

Tullow received just over $1 million from the Irish Government in the form of a tax credit.

The company, which is pumping most of its oil in Africa, paid $37 million in production entitlements to the Ghana, where it pumps about 70,000 barrels of oil a day from the Jubilee field offshore Ghana.

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy is Economics Correspondent of The Irish Times