Tullow Oil, the British producer in Ghana says the wells from the Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) fields due to start production in July or August will add about 80,000 barrels per day to Ghana’s oil production, according to a Reuters report.
Production levels at the Jubilee fields have been swinging between 67,000 barrels per day and 100,000 barrels per day.
Citing Tullow, the report said the project would cost about $5 billion.
According to Tullow, the API gravity of the oil will be between 32.0 and 33.1, with sulphur content between 0.28 percent and 0.55 per cent.
Meanwhile, a report published Monday February 15, 2016 by the Irish Times quotes Tullow CEO Aidan Heavey as saying that the company may sell some of its prize assets in Ghana in the future to generate returns for shareholders.
Mr Heavey, who announced a quarter drop in Tullow’s annual revenues and losses of $1 billion, insisted that the company is fundamentally financially robust, despite the plunge in its share price due to the collapse in oil prices.
According to the report, Mr. Heavey insisted that shareholders would probably get a better return from selling individual assets.
He said Tullow’s plan was to sell off stakes in some of its biggest projects over time, such as those in Kenya and Ghana. “In some of those projects, we hold 50 per cent. Those are some chunky interests. Sell one of those and our debt is gone,” the report quoted him as saying.
Tullow is a major stakeholder in Ghana’s oil industry that has been hit by low oil prices and lower than projected production levels.
In March 2015, the ratings agency Moody’s, downgraded Tullow four days after downgrading Ghana’s sovereign rating from B2 to B3.
In a statement issued in London and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com Tuesday March 24, 2015, Moody’s Investors Service said it had downgraded Tullow Oil’s corporate family rating and probability of default rating (CFR) to B1/B1-PD from Ba3/Ba3-PD, because Tullow’s largest operations are located in Ghana.
According to Moody’s the ratings on Tullow’s $650 million 2020 and $650 million 2022 senior notes were downgraded to B3/LGD 6 from B2/LGD 5 following the downgrade of Ghana’s sovereign rating by one notch to B3/negative on March 19, 2015.
Tullow has major projects in Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi