New larger FPSO on Tullow’s cards for Ghana oil fields development

Tullow Oil has a larger Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel on the cards as the oil producing company works on developing its assets in Ghana.

Tullow indicated in its 2010 Financial Results that it is focused on optimising the recovery of the light oil discovered at Enyenra and maximising both liquid and gas recovery from Tweneboa, and therefore, it has included in its conceptual developments the use of a large FPSO vessel with liquid rates in the ranges of 75,000 to 125,000 barrels of oil per day. The FPSO in use currently at the Jubilee fields has a maximum capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil per day.

A spokesperson for Tullow Oil, Kate Lahane told ghanabusinessnews.com by email March 17, 2011 that Tullow is continuing to work on the development of its assets in Ghana and as mentioned in their results statement last week, this development would include the use of a large FPSO but no further information is currently available.

Tullow also said water and gas is expected to be injected into reservoirs to optimise both oil and condensate recovery levels.

According to Tullow, gas export infrastructure to shore will also be put in place to satisfy the growing demand in Ghana.

“A Plan of Development will be prepared for submission in the first quarter of 2012 and, pending approvals and a timely sanction of the project, first production would be anticipated before the end of 2014,” the company said.

The FPSO which is being used to produce oil at the Jubilee fields currently is said to use the biggest turret ever constructed in the oil industry and can process 120,000 barrels of oil a day. It has a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels and estimated to have cost $875 million.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi