Tullow Oil: Company's share price crashes as sales fall despite success in narrowing losses

Tullow Oil's share price fell more than 5% on Wednesday morning (10 February), despite efforts by the company to stem its losses. The troubled oil explorer told investors revenue slipped by 27% in 2015, compared to 2014.

Its pre-tax loss during the 2015 financial year was $1.03bn (£710m, €910m), down 37% from 2014's loss of $1.64bn. The company is struggling to increase sales because of the current low oil price environment.

European benchmark Brent Crude has fallen more than 70% since its recent peak in mid-2014, trading at less than $30 per barrel in early January. Currently, it is trading at $30.98.

Tullow Oil's revenue dropped 27% to $1.6bn during 2015. The firm's creditors agreed to maintain its credit facility in October 2015, allowing Tullow continued access to its entire $4bn debt.

"Today's results demonstrate that Tullow adjusted well to low oil prices in 2015," Aidan Heavey, the company's chief executive said. "We secured current and future cash flow through good operational delivery in West Africa, continued to build our resource base in East Africa, significantly cut costs across the group and benefitted from our strong hedging position."

Tullow Oil has taken to its capital expenditure (CapEx) in a bid to further narrow losses. The company is cutting CapEx, the investments to increase asset values, reducing it to $300m in 2017.

But the company's shift in spending is not a promise to reduce production. Tullow Oil is focusing on its low-cost oil business in West Africa, and is expecting to hike production to 73,000-80,000 barrels a day, up from 66,600 bpd in 2015. The company aims to further increase production to 100,000bpd by 2017.