Tullow Oil's finance chief has raised the prospect that the Africa-focused producer may resume its dividend, which it froze in 2015 due to the oil price crash.
"This year we'll be maximising cash flow with a focus on strengthening the balance sheet.. and with our continued performance over the year that allows us to consider return to the shareholders," Tullow's chief financial officer Les Wood said.
Tullow swung back into profit in 2017 after three years in the red.
It is set to generate around $500m in free cash flow at oil prices around $60 a barrel, with every further $5 a barrel adding around $100m in cash flow, Wood said.
Benchmark Brent crude futures are trading at around $74 a barrel.
Tullow is still considering how to divvy up that money between paying down its $3.4 billion debt pile, investing in assets or shareholder returns.
"We're considering whether we'd use any of that oil incremental free cash flow to accelerate drilling in Ghana. We've not come to a conclusion on that," Wood said.
"That would really be accelerating production and cash flow particularly in 2019, more so than 2018," he added.
