Tullow's chief executive Aidan Heavey said that the firm's recent sale of a 20% stake in the Kudu gas field in Namibia in southern Africa was likely to be replicated elsewhere.

"While Tullow is a sizeable company we would need partners in there, because you would be spending millions of dollars and you need companies of that size to come in. You'll see a lot more bigger companies becoming involved, " he said.

"We try and bring in partners to each licence that will help in the long-term development. In Namibia, for example, the Kudu field is potentially an enormous field and could solve the energy problems for the whole southern region of Africa."

Tullow announced last week that it had won a licence in Trinidad which could have significant potential but Heavey said that the company's main focus was on Africa.

He dismissed concerns about that continent's record on corruption and political instability. He said that the continent's reputation as a hotbed of corruption was greatly exaggerated.

"People talk about Africa but Africa is made up of 53 countries. Everybody classifies it as one area. There's a lot of different peoples, a lot of different tribes there and just because one has a bad reputation doesn't mean the whole lot has. We've been working with Africa for 21 years and we've not seen any corruption."