FPSO Atta Mills arrives in Ghana
Ghana’s second Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will produce and store oil from the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) offshore oil fields, has arrived in the country.
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The vessel, named for Ghana’s immediate past President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, arrived in Ghanaian waters Wednesday.
The first FPSO, named for Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, began production on the Jubilee fields in 2010.
It exceeded its gross production target during 2015, averaging 102,600 barrels per day, and it is projected to produce around 101,000 barrels of oil per day this year.
The FPSO Professor Mills, which was constructed in Singapore and named by the First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, in September 2015, is expected to start producing oil from the TEN oil fields by July/August 2016.
“The FPSO began its voyage from Singapore to Ghana on January 23, 2016 with almost zero ‘carry over’, meaning only 2,000 man hours of work remained to be completed during the voyage.
“This is a very significant industry achievement. The FPSO will move directly to the installation phase when it arrives on station.
“This will be followed by the hook-up of subsea facilities via flowlines, risers and control umbilicals, many of which have already been pre-installed,” a statement issued by Tullow Ghana Limited in Accra yesterday said.
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Additionally, it said six wells had already been completed, while the completion of remaining wells was on schedule.
“The integrated facilities will undergo final commissioning and testing during the second quarter of this year before first oil,” the statement explained.
Minister of Petroleum
Highlighting his excitement over the arrival of the vessel, the Minister of Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Kofi-Armah Buah, said “the arrival of the FPSO Professor Mills gives assurance of Ghana’s sustained production of oil and gas”.
He said the arrival of the vessel also moved Ghana one step further into creating an industry that continued to be resilient in the face of serious global challenges in the upstream sector.
According to him, the TEN project would record its first gas in the first quarter of 2017 after it had hit first oil in August 2016.
Mr Buah commended Tullow Ghana Limited, the lead operator of the TEN project, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and other partners for working within time and budget.
Tullow speaks
The Managing Director of Tullow Ghana Limited, Mr Charles Darku, said “we are extremely pleased and proud that Ghana’s second FPSO has arrived safely here on our shores”.
“It is a source of pride to note that many of the component parts of both the FPSO and the sub-sea infrastructure were built and supplied by Ghanaian companies.
“Tullow and its partners remain at the forefront of unlocking Ghana’s oil resources for the mutual benefit of the nation and shared prosperity,” he added.
The FPSO Professor Mills was constructed by MODEC and will be operated by MODEC Ghana Ltd on behalf of the TEN partners.