Ship docks in Ghana to load first Jubilee oil

The first ship to load oil from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah at the Jubilee Field docked at the anchorage of the Tema Port in the early hours of Sunday January 3,  2011.

The ship, Mt Spike, has Hull Blyth Limited as its local agent.

Officials of the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) are expected to inspect the ship to ensure that it conforms to international and safety standards before it would be dispatched to the Jubilee Field.

Confirming the arrival of the ship to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Communications Director of the GMA, Mrs Eleanor Pratt, said the vessel could only be dispatched to the Jubilee Field after it had met all international specifications and requirements.

She expressed the commitment of the GMA to ensure that all ships that arrived in the country bound for the Jubilee Field to load processed oil adhered to internationally acknowledged benchmarks in the oil industry.

The Deputy Director of Surveys and Inspection at the GMA, Mr William Eson Thompson, who led a team to inspect the Malta-registered vessel, indicated in an interview that the ship was 248 metres long and 43.8 metres wide and added that it last docked in Libya.

President J.EA Mills, on December 15, 2010, symbolically turned the wheel on the FPSO Kwame Nkmmah to signify the beginning of commercial oil production on the Jubilee Field, the first in the history of Ghana.

Source: Daily Graphic