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Lagos - Energy explorer Tullow on Monday said it was unaffected by an international tribunal ordering Ghana not to carry out any new oil drilling activities in disputed waters with neighbour Ivory Coast.
"Development work on the TEN Project continues," the London-based multinational said in an emailed statement, referring to its three deepwater oil and gas fields off the Ghanaian coast.
"The project is now over 55% complete with all 10 of the wells expected to be online at first oil already drilled," it added, saying the first barrels were expected in mid-2016.
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany, on Saturday ordered Ghana to stop new oil projects until a final resolution on the disagreement was reached.
Abidjan had wanted the suspension of all ongoing oil exploration and exploitation by Ghana. The court, however, said that would cause "considerable financial loss to Ghana."
The area in dispute cuts through offshore oil fields that both countries want to exploit, but whose boundary has not been properly demarcated, according to the parties.
A final ruling on the issue is expected in late 2017, and both parties were ordered to cooperate until then as part of the arbitration process.
Ghana and Ivory Coast are West Africa's second- and third-largest economies. Accra began commercial oil production in 2010 from the Jubilee oil field, also run by Tullow.
Commercial oil revenue boosted Ghana's economy from 2010 until a recent slump. Ivory Coast is also looking to oil as a means of reviving its economy.
