Tullow Oil is in focus after talk that BP is interested in the Jubilee field offshore Ghana.
Tullow has a 34.7% interest in the field, and there has been some recent excitement surrounding the area after Kosmos Energy put its own 23.5% stake up for sale. Kosmos has signed an exclusivity agreement to sell the stake to Exxon for $4bn, but there have been subsequent suggestions China's CNOOC could link up with a local partner to bid, possibly with approval from Ghana's government.
Any interest from BP, down 6.9p at 566.1p, would throw a spanner into already complicated works. Analyst Phil Corbett at Royal Bank of Scotland said;
It's anyone's guess how this one plays out, but it is clear that there is a strong level of industry interest in the Ghana licences and that has to be a positive for sentiment where Tullow is concerned.
Indeed, Tullow is now up 24p at £12.77, the third biggest riser in a weak FTSE 100.
