Oil production from the Tullow Oil PLC-operated Jubilee field offshore Ghana resumed on May 3 and is ramping up.
An earlier technical investigation of the Kwame Nkrumah floating production, storage, and offloading vessel’s turret bearing confirmed that it’s no longer able to rotate as originally designed (OGJ Online, Apr. 8, 2016). Production had been shut since March.
New operating procedures include the FPSO being put on “heading control,” which requires the use of tugs to minimize vessel rotation and revised offtake procedures, including the use of a dynamically positioned shuttle tanker and a storage tanker, partner Kosmos Energy Ltd. said in its May 9 earnings report.
A project team has been established to review the root cause analysis and determine the optimum permanent solution of the turret issue. A decision is expected in the next few months.
Gross sales volumes from Jubilee during the first quarter averaged 80,000 b/d of oil while gas exports averaged 72 MMcfd.
Gross production volumes from Jubilee averaged 106,000 bo/d during fourth-quarter 2015 and 102,500 bo/d for the full year. Gas exports during the quarter averaged 92 MMcfd, exiting the quarter at more than 110 MMcfd.
