No-one said running an oil and gas company in Africa was easy and recent developments at Tullow Oil (TLW) simply underline that point.
This morning the company announces it has lost a legal dispute with US peer Kosmos Energy resulting in a payout to the latter upwards of $50m.
The two parties had been arguing over their liability for costs relating to a terminated rig contract for a planned well off the coast of Ghana in 2016.
Tullow declared force majeure on the contract in December 2016 after Ghana set a drilling moratorium on assets which were located in waters then claimed by both Ghana and Ivory Coast.
In early July Tullow had been ordered to pay $140m to rig operator Seadrill in relation to this affair. The combined impact of these rulings will undermine attempts by the company to reduce its debt pile - a key strategic priority for the group.
Shares in the company are down 1.1% to 216.6p this morning - now materially below the highs of close to 280p achieved in early May.
This at least partly represents a retreat in crude prices in the interim, with Tullow particularly sensitive to movements in the price of oil due to its substantial borrowings which stood at $3.5bn at the start of the year.
Adding to its woes, overnight the company had said it might need to stop production from its north Kenyan oil fields due to local protests.
Tullow Oil will look to move on from these issues when it releases its first half results on 25 July.
