Tullow and the Jubilee Partners are working to increase daily average production to over 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from the Greater Jubilee Field during the second half of 2023, when the Jubilee South-East (JSE) Area development is up and running.
The leap in production will result from the successful development of the Jubilee South-East (JSE) area, which is an extension of the Jubilee Field, offshore Cape Three Points in the Western Region.
Benefits
The increase in production is expected to bring significant benefit to the country including increased revenue from oil production, local capacity development which will be reflected in the companies in the production value chain, skills transfer, more jobs, and local content development through the participation of indigenous companies.
The JSE project, which Tullow Ghana Limited and its partners are developing under the “Ghana Volume Maximisation Plan”, is part of the Greater Jubilee Field located in the Tano Basin.
The Managing Director of Tullow Ghana, the lead operator of the Jubilee and Tweneboa, Enyera and Ntomme (TEN) oilfields, Wissam Al-Monthiry, who spoke to the Daily Graphic, said the partners are optimistic about the success of JSE, saying “the execution of the JSE project is an example of how a big field can get bigger
The lead operator of Jubilee, Tullow Ghana Limited, told the Daily Graphic that the first commercial oil is expected around the middle of the year.
Background
Tullow and its partners on the Jubilee Field have been investing in Greater Jubilee Field to increase production over the past two years. Under Tullow Ghana’s Value Maximisation Plan, the company has earmarked $4 billion investment over 10 years.
The successful development of JSE, according to industry experts, will be a remarkable achievement as it portends significant benefit for the country’s oil industry and for economic growth.
An official of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) stated that the new production wells will be good news for the country.
“We all know that since 2018 no field has been added, so this is actually good news,” the Technical Manager of PIAC, Mark Obeng Adu Agyemang, told the Daily Graphic.
Big field just got bigger
Mr Al-Monthiry said when the JSE project is completed, “the Jubilee Field could be placed in a completely different category as a world-class oil and gas field.”
Asked why Tullow Ghana decided to invest more, he said, as an operator, after a find, the decision would be taken about which parts of the field to develop in a phased approach.
That approach gives the operator the opportunity to learn more about the field as production continues, the Tullow Ghana MD added.
“From the mid-2000s to about 2016, it started to become clear to us that there was an opportunity to develop Jubilee further to the South-East area,” Mr Al-Monthiry explained.
“In the field trajectory, in 2020, a project was put together to receive a final investment decision to be sanctioned to develop Jubilee Southeast, which progressed even through the COVID-19 period and to the point now that we are looking at the possibility of welcoming first oil from the JSE area in the coming weeks,” Wissam said.
Subsea infrastructure
Mr Al-Monthiry again explained that after the project was sanctioned in December 2020, it went through engineering, design, procurement, and fabrication of the different parts of equipment for the installation of the subsea infrastructure.
He added that the engineering, design, procurement, and fabrication works of the different parts of the subsea infrastructure took place on three continents, but with a significant local content component.
“Let me say that one of the world’s most complicated subsea equipment was fabricated in Takoradi for the project and has since been installed,” Mr Al-Monthiry said.
Value maximisation
“With Jubilee SE project, we expect that it will bring jubilee’s production back to more than 100,000 barrels a day and keep it there for the foreseeable future, which is an exciting milestone,” he said.
Mr Al-Monthiry said almost $1.5 billion had been spent on the project in line with the $4 billion Ghana Value Maximisation Plan unveiled in 2021, a significant portion of that going into the drilling and completion of wells in the Jubilee SE area, as well as the fabrication and procurement of equipment as part of the Jubilee SE programme.
The Strategy
Regarding sustainability, and Partners’ possible consideration of other basins, he said: “Our strategy in Ghana is to focus on exploiting the Jubilee and TEN fields to the maximum.
“First oil in the next few weeks looks quite imminent and we are all very excited about it and after that, you will start hearing much more specific plans from us on the next phase of growth for Jubilee and beyond,” Mr Al-Monthiry added.
“Currently we feel that there is a lot of room to run on the existing fields and a lot of capital to possibly invest if we can. So, we focus on that as a priority and we are considering other opportunities as well,” he said.
TEN Field
On the TEN fields, the Tullow Ghana Managing Director said it was doing well, and that while oil production was on the decline, the partners were working with the government on a multi-year gas contract as well as oil development.
“We will be submitting a revised plan of development for the field to the Ministry of Energy,” Mr Al-Monthiry stated.
Once that is approved, it would give a significant lifeline to the TEN Field to grow in its own right and produce higher levels of oil and gas throughout to the end of the licensed period, he added.
Background
In December 2010, history was recorded after President Atta Mills turned the valves on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah to indicate the beginning of the production of crude oil in commercial quantities on the Jubilee Oil Field. It was discovered in 2007 under President John Agyekum Kufuor.
Oil from the country’s oil is the light sweet crude, which is a global quality, with high demand in the international market.
The Jubilee Field at the time produced 120,000bopd. However, after more than a decade of production, its daily output has gone down naturally, hence the investment.
PIAC Technical Manager
When reached for comments, Mr Agyemang welcomed the “good news”, explaining that PIAC and other relevant stakeholders had been worried for the past few years that production kept dwindling.
“Our recommendation to government and its agencies has been that we need to bring on stream new fields, because if the current trends continue, probably in the next 10 years, we’ll have to come to the end of production in the fields that we have lost.”
The technical manager at the PIAC Secretariat commended Tullow and its partners for their commitment to the country, saying while other investors were pulling away, Tullow and partners committed to invest that kind of money into the petroleum sector.
“More fields should come on stream, and we hope that as part of the Ghana Volume Maximisation Plan, other fields in the Greater Jubilee area will come on stream in the shortest possible time to give impetus to our upstream petroleum industry and help us raise the needed revenue as a country,” Mr Agyemang stated.
SOURCE:https://www.graphic.com.gh/