Tullow to develop new oil wells to increase Ghana's oil production

UK-based Oil firm Tullow Ghana Limited, major operators of Ghana's Jubilee Oilfield, said on Friday that the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) had approved a plan for the development of new oil wells. The new 210 km reservoir, with 1,800 depth of water, will be developed into 24 oil wells in the next three years to produce 80, 000 barrels of oil per day. The wells, discovered in May this year by Tullow and expected to produce the first oil in the first quarter of 2016, have a 20- year life span. A member of the Communication Team of Tullow Ghana Limited, Gayheart Edem Mensah, told Xinhua on Friday in Takoradi, 218 km west of the national capital Accra, that the new project, referred to as the "TEN project," comprised three major reservoirs, namely Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme. He said MODEC, a fabrication and engineering firm, will construct a Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel in Singapore. Mensah said 10 oil wells would be developed by the time that the oil firm starts producing first crude oil in 2016, and later develop the rest of the wells. The Ghanian government has 5 percent stake in the project and will also receive 35 percent corporate tax. The oil wells will also produce 180 million standard cubic feet of raw gas per day to feed the Atuabo gas processing plant that will invariably boost the country's energy needs. Kenneth Nunoo, another member of the Communication Team of Tullow, indicated that the oil wells would be developed in phases and that undersea infrastructure like a 60 km production pipelines would be constructed to connect to the FPSO. Moreover, a shuttle vessel will also be available to offload and load crude oil from the FPSO. Ghana discovered crude oil in commercial quantities in 2007 and started drilling oil in the last quarter of 2010.