Paula Dittrick
OGJ Senior Staff Writer
HOUSTON, Dec. 15 -- Production from Jubilee oil and gas field off Ghana has started, and partners expect output to reach 55,000 b/d of oil by yearend and 120,000 b/d during the first half of 2011 when additional wells are completed, operator Tullow Oil PLC and partners said Dec. 15.
The first tanker of oil from Jubilee field is expected to leave in January 2011, Tullow said. The field in the Gulf of Guinea came on stream 42 months after the 2007 discovery (OGJ, Nov. 22, 2010, p. 24).
Tullow said Ghana officials celebrated with Dec. 15 events both offshore and onshore. Oil flowed into the floating production, storage, and offloading vessel on Nov. 28. That oil was used to commission facilities, Tullow said.
Kosmos Energy LLC, a private company based in Dallas and the project’s technical operator for development, said the “accelerated timetable represents one of the shortest cycles for any deepwater FPSO-based oil project of this scale in ultradeep water.”
The next phase of development likely will include infill wells, which will not require installation of other subsea facilities. Jubilee field is on the deepwater Tano Block and extends into the West Cape Three Points Block (OGJ, July 27, 2009, p. 35).
Plans are under way for the appraisal and development of additional discoveries on those blocks, Kosmos said.
The turret-moored FPSO, the Kwame Nkrumah, was created by converting a very large crude carrier in Singapore’s Jurong shipyard.
The FPSO is capable of processing 120,000 b/d and 160 MMscfd of gas and storing up to 1.6 million bbl of crude. It’s also capable of treating and injecting 232,000 b/d of water for reservoir pressure maintenance, and it can offload or reinject 160 MMscfd of gas.
Tullow operates Jubilee with 34.7%. Partners are Kosmos and Anadarko Petroleum 23.49% each, Ghana National Petroleum Corp. 13.75%, Sabre Oil & Gas 2.81%, and EO Group 1.75%.
Contact Paula Dittrick at [email protected].