Tullow Rises After UBS Upgrades Stock to `Buy' on Exploration

By Clementine Fletcher and Eduard Gismatullin

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Tullow Oil Plc, the U.K. explorer with the most exploration licenses in Africa, rose in London trading after it was upgraded to ``buy'' from ``neutral'' at UBS AG because of future drilling potential.

Tullow rose as much as 40 pence, or 5.8 percent, to 734 pence and was trading at 730 pence at 8:22 a.m. local time.

``The company plans to drill 14 wells over the balance of the year with further high impact potential in Uganda, Ghana, Mauritania and Guyana into 2009,'' Adrian Wood, a London-based analyst, wrote in a note. ``Further exploration success could possibly make Tullow an M&A target next year.''

The bank has a price estimate of 950 pence on the stock.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net