Tullow Oil says it will book pretax impairment charges of up to $1.7 billion against its first-half results, raising further questions about its ability to survive a new period of low oil prices with net debt now standing at around $3 billion. Following the lead of majors such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell, Tullow is resigned to taking a big financial hit as a result of lower short-term oil price forecasts and a revision of its long-term price assumption from $65 per barrel to $60. It said this would result in “material impairment and exploration write-offs” of $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion before tax.
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