Work On Oil Starts • Vessels in to build sub-sea structures

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 (Lead Story)

TECHNICAL installations have started on the Jubilee Oilfields at Cape Three Points to pave the way for the commercial production of oil and gas by the last quarter of this year.
Consequently, Happy River arrived in the country last week and is expected to to build sub-sea structures for the installation of a billion-dollar Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.
The FPSO, the size of three football fields, is near completion in Singapore and it is expected to sail to the country in March this year.
A Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra yesterday.
The FPSO will process and store oil and gas which were discovered in large quantities three years ago at Cape Three Points in the Western Region.
The Happy River, fitted with cranes, arrived from Finland last Wednesday, while the Olympic Triton, which is sailing from France, is expected in Ghanaian waters today.
The Happy River was built for heavy lifts, but it can also be used to carry forest products, general cargo and containers, as well as project items, while the Olympic Triton is a multifunctional sub-sea vessel with a large deck area and very large cargo capabilities for most operations. It is equipped with diesel-electric machinery which ensures low noise levels and low fuel consumption.
Mr Buah said so far 17 wells had been drilled, with each well containing millions of barrels of oil and gas.
The oilfields which will be developed in phases are expected to produce 120,000 barrels of crude per day.
They have proven reserves of more than 300 million barrels of recoverable oil, making the discovery West Africa’s largest offshore deep-water discovery in over a decade.
According to Mr Buah, the government was putting in place the necessary measures to ensure that Ghanaians derived maximum benefit from the oil find.
The Jubilee Oilfields are jointly owned by Kosmos Energy, Tullow Oil Ghana Limited, Anardarko Petroleum, Sabre Oil of Ireland, the GNPC and the E.O. Group, with Tullow Oil as the operator of the Jubilee Oilfields.
Partners in the oilfields will need to invest about $5 billion to fully develop the fields to pave the way for the production of oil.
Due to the cost involved in drilling and the time frame needed for the acquisition of equipment, the partners will develop the discovered fields in phases.