SHARES IN Tullow Oil surged after the exploration firm said it found oil at an appraisal well in offshore Ghana.

The firm gained 3.5 per cent to 1,522 pence after it said the Enyenra-4A appraisal well, which is located in the Deepwater Tano licence, successfully encountered oil in good quality sandstone reservoirs.

Drilling, wireline logs, samples of reservoir fluids and pressure data show that Enyenra-4A has intersected 32 metres of net oil pay. The well is located almost 7km southwest of its Enyenra-2A well, and about 21km south of the Enyenra-3A well. “Proving a 600m oil column over a distance of 21km with three appraisal wells is a significant achievement which was only possible through the use of highly refined geophysical techniques,” said Tullow exploration director Angus McCoss.

“The appraisal of the Enyenra field will now continue with the monitoring of the pressure gauges deployed in several wells to determine the level of dynamic connectivity within the system and to further refine the estimates of oil in place.”