Tullow Oil Plc, the U.K. explorer with the most licenses in Africa, plans to increase investment 30 percent next year because of the Jubilee field development in Ghana and exploration campaigns worldwide.

The company will boost investment to 480 million pounds($886 million) this year, Chief Financial Officer Tom Hickey said today on a conference call with reporters. Tullow plans to drill 50 wells in 15 exploration projects in Africa, South America and Asia through 2009.

"There is a lot of activity coming up" and "a lot of upside potential in the exploration program," Angus McCoss, the exploration director at the London-based company, said today on the call.

Tullow is focusing on exploration and development of fields in Uganda and Ghana. It will invest at least $3.1 billion in the first phase of its Jubilee field development in Ghana, with crude production expected to start in the second half of 2010.

The company plans to pump 68,000 to 70,000 barrels a day this year and output is expected to stay ``flat'' in the next two years, Chief Operating Officer Paul McDade said today.

Tullow is targeting about 4.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent potential with its planned wells in Ghana and Uganda alone, according to a company presentation posted today on its Web site. It plans to explore fields in Mauritania, India, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Tanzania, Suriname and French Guiana.

Source: Bloomberg