OWSL to provide water for Jubilee Fields offshore operations
Some Ghanaian companies have pulled their resources together to produce underground water to support the country’s offshore oil operations.
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The move is to halt the current importation of large volumes of water from neighboring countries at high cost.
The investors formed a company known as Offshore Water Services Ltd (OWSL), with the membership of the Ghanaian companies in the Ghana Oil and Gas Service Providers Association (GOGSPA).
It said though water was one of the very important ingredients required for various purposes during drilling, the available volume required by the jubilee partners was inadequate.
The project, which would be sited on a five acre plot, is in partnership with the host community and upon completion, will have a storage capacity of the facility of 10,000cubic metres at a daily delivery rate of 5,000 cubic metres.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Executive Director of Ghana Oil and Gas Service Providers Association (GOGSPA), Mr Nuetey Adzeman, said to meet the demands, supply vessels were left with no choice than to lift water from neighboring Cote d"Ivoire.
The Twin-City of Sekondi/Takoradi , he said, was better placed to supply water for offshore operations, however, the demands on Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to satisfy the needs of the domestic consumers, left little or nothing to meet offshore demands.
“As a result of water shortage in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, supply vessels go to the Cote d’Ivoire to lift water to service the offshore demands at a very high cost to the Government of Ghana and the international oil companies,” he said.
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This, he said, defeats the spirit of promoting Local Content and Local Participation in petroleum activities as prescribed previously in the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act, 1984 (PNDC Law 84) and now Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations 2013 (L.I 2204). The preference was to supply water from within the local communities in Ghana.
Offshore Water Services and GOGSPA said recognising the inherent challenges due to the lack of fresh water in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, the company formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to supply fresh water to the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry.
Mr Adzeman said the project will be located in the Nzema East Municipality (Axim).
He said drilling and construction will begin in January 2014, while the commissioning of the project will take place in the second quarter of 2014.
This project is intended to complement the efforts of GWCL in the delivery of water by relieving the company of the pressure of supplying water to the offshore industry to enable them concentrate on servicing the domestic users.
Mr Adzeman said when completed, the project would create wealth for stakeholders and employment for the community.