Jefferies downgrades Tullow Oil, slashes price target

Jefferies downgraded Tullow Oil on Wednesday to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ and cut the price target to 48p from 77p.

The bank said Tullow’s interim results brought back into its investment view what it sees as the limitations of Ghana production improvement at the Jubilee field and TEN field.

"This, alongside more limited deleverage than (North Sea) peers and a proposed Capricorn Energy merger that has been withdrawn, means we move Tullow to a core NAV-based price target method of 48p a share and downgrade to hold.

"In simple terms, we view the circa $200m free cash flow that Tullow estimates in 2022 at $95/barrel oil price as an approximate annual limit of deleverage for the company."

Jefferies said that because capex must continue at least at current levels to maintain drilling intensity, it does not see a step change in production either way and Tullow has no immediate exposure to the bank’s increased gas price assumptions.

At 1255 BST, the shares were down 5.3% at 38.92p.