TEN pours first oil tomorrow
Ghana will be marking another remarkable feat in the oil and gas sector tomorrow when President John Dramani Mahama inaugurates the first oil for the Tweneboa Enyera Ntomme (TEN) project in the Western Region.
Advertisement
The project, which begins at a time Parliament has passed the Exploration and Petroleum Bill into law to streamline operations in the oil and gas sector; adds on to the Jubilee oilfield, which began commercial production of oil in 2010.
The ceremony, which is termed “ceremonial valve turning,” will occur offshore Western Region.
Ghana’s story
Ghana joined the league of oil producing countries when oil was discovered in commercial quantities in June 2007.
From there on, it has been one successful story after another with the discovery of more oil and gas reserves.
The lead operators of the more than $4 billion project, Tullow Ghana Limited and their partners say they are excited about the turn of events as the project is on schedule.
The Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO), which, has been named after late President John Evans Atta-Mills arrived at the shores of Ghana in March 2016.
It has the largest turret in the world, which weighs 4,500 tonnes.
Ten wells have so far been drilled. A total of 24 wells are expected to be drilled in the lifespan of the project.
The TEN oilfield has 80 per cent oil and 20 per cent gas.
Thus, the gas from the TEN oilfield will augment the Jubilee oilfield gas which is currently feeding the Aboadze Power plant to bring power outages to the bearest minimum.
Other operators of TEN project are the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Kosmos Energy; Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and PetroSA as partners.
MODEC, FMC Technologies, Subsea 7, Technip and Aker Solutions were the major contractors in the development of the field.
Minister of Petroleum
The Minister of Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Kofi-Armah Buah, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the upcoming event marks an important moment for Ghana.
He said it was proof “Ghana is a great place to invest.”
Mr Buah said the government was creating “a successful environment for oil and gas investment in West Africa.”
He said local content on the TEN project, had been immense right from the construction of the FPSO Mills to its completion and final sail to Ghana.
Mr Buah commended the local companies that participated in the construction of FPSO Mills.
The local companies that participated in the construction and fabrication work on FPSO Mills are Harlequin, Orsam and Seaweld.
The work completed in Ghana includes construction of 361 stools for the FPSO topside (used to hold up the 19,000 tonnes of equipment), assembly of Christmas trees (large pieces of kit that control flow of oil and gas from the wells on the sea bed) and construction of the anchoring piles that keep the equipment anchored including the FPSO (which requires nine anchor piles alone).
Message from Tullow
The Managing Director of Tullow Ghana Limited, Mr Charles Darku in an interview with the Daily Graphic, expressed joy at the turn of events and said production of oil would begin at 23,000 barrels a day.
He said production would continue after the ceremonial valve turning ceremony by the President.
He thanked Ghanaians for their support over the years and gave the assurance that Tullow will continue to work assiduously with its partners for the interest of all.
For his part, the Project Director of the TEN project, Mr Terry Hughes, said Tullow Ghana Limited and its partners were very proud of their achievements so far and said Ghanaians should expect more from the team in the 25-year lifespan of the project.