#Oil - Tullow Oil's shares dropped more than 6% in London trading early last week with the news that its prospect in the Atlantic off French Guiana is dry, according to The Irish Times.

The Irish-founded oil exploration firm says it encountered a number of oil shows in reservoir quality sands at its Zaedyus-2 well in the waters north of Brazil, but it "did not encounter commercial hydrocarbons".

The result was described as "very disappointing" by Investec Securities analyst Stuart Joyner - though better signs have been seen at the nearby Zaedyus-1 well, drilled by Tullow with partners Royal Dutch Shell and Total at a cost of $250 million.

And as previously reported on Afloat.ie, the UK-based company's prospects off the Ivory Coast and Ghana have proven encouraging for future exploration.

#DEEPWATER OIL - Tullow Oil has struck oil off the Ivory Coast in an encouraging development for the Irish-founded oil exploration company, Bloomberg reports.

The UK-based firm says its Paon-1X deepwater exploration well encountered 31 metres of net oil in a gross interval of 74 metres of turbidite sands, suggesting that the well is a continuous column of light oil.

The discovery, which extends recent finds made in nearby Ghana, is "encouraging for our future exploration efforts" says Tullow Oil's Angus McCoss.

Tullow's shares rose 2.1% on the London stock exchange at the news earlier this month. Bloomberg has more on the story HERE.

The firm's successes in West Africa have been reflected closer to home by competing oil exploration business Providence Resources, which recently struck it lucky off the south coast of Cork with an oil flow that could be worth billions of euro to the Irish economy.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, oil started to flow successfully from the company's Barryroe structure in the north Celtic Sea one month after confirming the presence of light oil with its first appraisal well.