Development Approval

Tullow Oil PLC
02 August 2004



Press release





Tullow Oil plc
2nd August 2004



    TULLOW ANNOUNCES GOVERNMENT APPROVAL OF NORTHERN BLOCK G DEVELOPMENT IN
                               EQUATORIAL GUINEA



Tullow Oil Plc (Tullow) announces that the Plan of Development for the Northern
Block G area in the Rio Muni basin (Tullow 15%) has been approved by the
government of Equatorial Guinea.



The integrated development plan for the Okume, Oveng, Ebano and Elon reservoirs
calls for a combination of two tension leg platforms (TLPs) set in 900 feet and
1,750 feet of water, four fixed platforms set in 150-230 feet of water and the
drilling of 29 producing wells. The plan also provides for 16 water injection
wells and two gas injection wells to maintain reservoir pressure and enhance oil
recovery.



Production from the fields will be gathered at a central processing facility
(CPF) located at the shallow water Elon field.  A 24 kilometer undersea pipeline
will connect the CPF to the Sendje Ceiba Floating Production, Storage and
Offloading (FPSO) vessel for storage and offloading of crude production. The
Sendje Ceiba, which has a crude storage capacity of 2.1 million barrels,
currently processes, stores and offloads crude production from the nearby Ceiba
field.



The partners will invest approximately $1.1 billion over the life of the
development and the project is expected to commence production by the first
quarter of 2007. Gross production is expected to reach approximately 60,000
barrels of oil per day in 2007.



The operator of the development is Amerada Hess, which holds an 85% working
interest. The government of Equatorial Guinea, through the national oil company,
GEPetrol, has a carried 5% interest in the development.



Commenting on the approval of the Plan of development, Aidan Heavey, Chief
Executive of Tullow said:

'Government approval of the optimized Northern Block G development in Equatorial
Guinea  represents another important milestone in realising our objective of
achieving significant organic growth in West Africa. We are pleased to be
participating in a project which will benefit the population of Equatorial
Guinea and contribute to the infrastructural development of the Bata area.'



For Further Information Contact:

Tullow Oil plc ([phone])
Aidan Heavey


Citigate Dewe Rogerson ([phone])
Alexandra Scrimgeour



Murray Consultants ([phone])
Joe Murray

Notes for Editors

'Tullow' where referred to in this release means Tullow Oil plc and/or its
subsidiaries, as appropriate.



Tullow is one of the leading independent international oil and gas exploration
and production companies in Europe.  Tullow is quoted on the London and Irish
stock exchanges (symbol TLW) and is a member of the FTSE 250 Index.

Production and Development Assets

Tullow has interests in over ninety exploration and production licences spread
over three core areas: UK North Sea, West Africa and South Asia. Tullow recently
completed the acquisition of Energy Africa, which takes the number of countries
in which Tullow is active to sixteen.



In the North Sea, Tullow's principal interests are in the CMS and the Thames/
Hewett group of licences and the Bacton onshore gas-processing terminal, which
it operates.



In Africa, Tullow has production in Gabon, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo ( Brazzaville )
and Equatorial Guinea. Tullow also has exploration programmes in Morocco,
Mauritania, Senegal, Cameroon, Uganda and Egypt.



In South Asia, Tullow has production and exploration interests in Pakistan and
is exploring in India, in addition to Bangladesh.



For further information see www.tullowoil.com






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