Employee Trust

Tullow Oil PLC
07 July 2006

Tullow Oil PLC

7 July 2006

                   Tullow Oil plc ('Tullow' or 'the Company')

The Company announces that the trustee of the Tullow Oil Employee Trust (the '
Trust') has made the following purchases of Tullow Oil ordinary shares of 10p
each ('Ordinary Shares'):
TRADE DATE                ORDINARY SHARES PURCHASED            PRICE PER ORDINARY SHARE
6 JULY 2006                        500,000                             390.30p

The Trust is a discretionary trust established by the Company for the benefit of
employees of Tullow Oil plc and its subsidiaries. The Ordinary Shares were
acquired to hedge the awards made under the Company's share incentive plans. The
total holding of the Trust following this transaction is 500,000 Ordinary Shares
representing 0.077% of the Company's issued share capital.

The executive directors of Tullow are included as potential beneficiaries under
the Trust and are deemed to be interested in all the shares held by the Trust
for the purposes of Section 324 of the Companies Act 1985.

Inquiries

Tom Hickey

+ 44 0208 996 1000





This announcement has been issued through the Companies Announcement Service of

                           The Irish Stock Exchange.




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