Exploration firm Tullow Oil said today one of its wells located in the waters off the Sierra Leone coast had successfully encountered a lucrative seam of hydrocarbons.

The Irish oil and gas company said the discovery at the Jupiter-1 exploration well had been confirmed by the results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids.

The well intersected 30 metres of "hydrocarbon pay" and had been preserved for possible future re-entry, as the area is likely to require additional evaluation, the company said.

Director Angus McCoss said: "Jupiter is the third discovery in the Liberian Basin by Tullow and its Partners and provides further support for the stratigraphic play in the region.

The presence of a working petroleum system producing gas and light oil in the basin is encouraging. Our technical teams will continue evaluating prospectivity across our significant regional acreage position.

Earlier this month, Tullow announced it had been given permission for the sale of a $2.9 billion stake in its Ugandan oilfield to two multinational players.

The company has agreed to sell two-thirds of its interests in oilfields in Uganda’s Lake Albert Rift Basin for $2.9 billion to French giant Total and Chinese multinational CNOOC.