Tullow Oil Plc, an Africa-focused energy producer, reported a narrower first-half loss after exploration writedowns shrank.
The net loss was $68 million compared with $95 million a year earlier, the London-based company said Wednesday in a statement. Sales dropped 35 percent to $820 million.
Tullow, which has made some of Africa’s largest oil discoveries in the past 10 years, operates the Jubilee field off Ghana and plans to start output at the country’s Tweneboa- Enyenra-Ntomme project in mid-2016. The plunge in crude prices over the past year has forced oil companies to cut spending in a bid to strengthen their balance sheets.
Tullow sold oil at $70.60 a barrel after hedging in the first half, 34 percent lower than a year earlier, the company said.