The Managing Director of Tullow Oil Ghana says beginning next year, the company will start paying dividend to the government.

This, Kweku Awotwi said, follows the company’s ability to service its debts that were in excess of $4 billion in the last twelve months.

Mr Awotwi, who announced this during an interaction with editors and senior media practitioners in Accra, remarked that the year 2018 had been a good year because the company made great strides.

The company was poised to deliver strong and sustainable returns on investment for shareholders, he said, adding that, it would continue to take safety measures to prevent accidents.

Over the next five years, Mr Awotwi said Tullow would commit the sum of 10 million dollars to help improve infrastructure to support the Free Senior High School.

On cooperate social responsibility, he said Tullow had invested in impactful projects in the areas of science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM), capacity building, enterprise development, shared infrastructure and environmental interventions.

He hinted that the company was working to strengthen and grow its business in Ghana by tapping into additional exploration opportunities.

Touching on the undrilled prospects, the Managing Director stated that leads had been identified within the Jubilee and TEN fields and that could lead to new discoveries and generation of additional production and revenue for Ghana and other stakeholders.

He said the rise in oil price had shored up the company’s finances and helped to reduce its debt portfolio.

Tullow-Ghana’s drilling programme is targeting a significant increase in production from around 147, 000 barrels to 180,000, in 2019.

Commenting on the company’s implementation of the local content law, Mr Awotwi stated that, many Ghanaians had benefited from the variety of training programmes, which had enabled them to take up various positions that were previously occupied by expatriates.