Tullow Oil (LSE:TLW) said the International Chamber of Commerce has ruled against it in an arbitration over a $196.5 million corporate income tax assessment tied to Business Interruption insurance proceeds it received between 2016 and 2019.
The West Africa-focused oil and gas producer, whose Ghana assets include the Jubilee and TEN fields, had contested the assessment on the grounds it breached the contractual protections in its Petroleum Agreements.
The Tribunal found otherwise, and also ruled that an accompanying 100% penalty falls outside the scope of those contractual protections.
Tullow said it was disappointed with the decision and will weigh its next steps after further talks with the Government of Ghana.
The ruling lands weeks after Tullow reported progress recovering separate historic gas receivables from the Ghanaian government, having collected $73 million in the first half and the remaining balance by the end of September.
It also follows a period of financial repair for the company, which completed a comprehensive debt refinancing in April and reported net debt of $1.4 billion at the end of June, down from $1.6 billion a year earlier.
Tullow said a further update on the tax matter will be provided in due course.