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Tullow Oil, the UK-based but Africa-focused oil explorer and producer, has discovered oil in northern Kenya.

In a statement posted on its website, Tullow Oil reported that it had “encountered 102 metres of net oil pay in two columns” while drilling an oil well.

“We are delighted with the Etom-2 well which encountered over 100 metres of net oil play in the best reservoirs in the basin so far,” said Angus Mccoss, Tullow Oil’s exploration director. “Discovering this thick interval of high quality oil reservoirs further underpins our development options and resource base,” he said.

In Kenya, Tullow Oil operates Blocks 13T and 10BB in an equal partnership with Canada-based Africa Oil Corporation.

Tullow Oil has been hit hard by the decline in oil prices, which have fallen by over 60 percent since last year. Unlike major oil companies with large refining and marketing businesses to bolster revenues in periods of oil slump, explorers and producers such as Tullow Oil have little wriggle room.

In February, Tullow Oil trimmed its exploration budget to $200 million from around $1 billion previously. The company has also trimmed its overall capital spending to between $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion next year from $1.9 billion in 2015.

Tullow Oil reported a full-year net loss of $1.5 billion in 2014, compared with a net profit of $169 million in 2013.

A consortium led by Tullow Oil struck oil in Ghana in 2007 and began commercial production in 2011. Today, Ghana produces about 100,000 barrels of oil per day and expects to reach 180,000 barrels per day in 2018.

 Chibuike Oguh is Financial Nigeria's Frontier Market Analyst