Ghana government, Jubilee partners disagree over oil project

There is disagreement between the government and the Jubilee partners over the implementation of the Tweneboa, Enyina and Ntumme (TEN) oil project in the Western Region.

While the government requests the Jubilee partners to drill the Ntumme well for it to fully assess the commercial viability and risk of the project before approving the plan for development (POD), the partners insist that there is enough economic value for the project, for which reason the POD should be endorsed.

The Jubilee partners are said to have invested $1 billion in the project so far and require to sink an additional $6 billion after approval of the POD.

According to senior officials at the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the government was making such a demand because it wanted to protect the national interest and avoid the mistakes associated with phase one of the Jubilee project.

Those mistakes, the officials contended, were responsible for the difficulties in attaining the maximum production of 120,000 barrels of oil a day.

Because of the mistakes, they said, the country incurred additional cost on remedial works to be done before the current 115 barrels of oil per day could be achieved.

But an official of the Jubilee Partners said any delay in approving the POD could cost the nation.

According to the official, the plan of development of the TEN project was submitted to the government in November 2012.

Meanwhile, he said the tender processes for the FPSO and subsea tender were both in the final phase for the awards to be given out as soon as POD was approved by the government.

However, government officials say the country will not rush for the TEN project to be developed, because “Ghana has learnt a lot from the past mistakes and we know GNPC will always object to anything that will work against the interest of the country. If we fast-track the Jubilee we must be careful with the TEN project.”

The Daily Graphic learnt that the approval of POD had been postponed three times already.

A government official told the Daily Graphic: “We must take our time. When we rushed the first one, they went to rent the expensive rigs which played to their advantage; local content was thrown to the dogs; we have simply learnt, and we will look for the best POD.”

Source: Daily Graphic