Tullow Ghana’s strong performance continues in second half of 2020

Tullow Ghana says its strong production performance has continued in the second half of the year with Jubilee and the Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme (TEN) fields averaging 90,000 Barrel Oil Per Day (bopd) and 50,000 (bopd) gross respectively through July and August.

"This has been driven by continued high facility uptimes and strong well performance across both fields including the Ntomme-09 well that came on-stream in early August," a statement from the company said.

It said the performance was as a result of increased gas off-take nominations from the Ghana National Gas Company as well as approval from the Ministry of Energy to temporarily increase flaring, higher than forecast facility uptime of over 95 per cent at both FPSOs and greater reliability and redundancy in the water injection facilities on the Jubilee FPSO.

Tullow Oil PLC in its 2020 half year results released on Ghana said the coming of the TEN’s Ntomme-09 production well on-stream at the start of August 2020 had contributed an incremental 5, 000 bopd gross oil production.

It said production from Tullow’s non-operated portfolio in the first half had been stable with working interest production averaging 23,700 bopd, in line with expectations.

The statement said production performance across the non-operated portfolio was expected to remain stable in the second half of 2020.

That was expected to have a net negative impact on average annual Group production of approximately 1,500 bopd, which was incorporated in the revised production guidance, the statement said.

“The final outcome is subject to change depending on how the Government of Gabon implements the quotas.

Tullow are working closely with Joint Venture Partners to ensure any production curtailments are equitably shared,” it added.

The statement said the impact of COVID-19 had been managed safely across the business with no adverse impact on Ghana’s production and that had been achieved in close cooperation with the Government.

It said the final phase of the Jubilee Turret Remediation Project was the installation of a Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring (CALM) buoy to assist with offloading.

The CALM buoy arrived in Ghana in January 2020; however, full installation works were delayed until September 2020.

Once the installation works were completed, commissioning was expected to be done in the fourth quarter of 2020, the statement said.

The company indicated that the Maersk Venturer drillship had now been released and tenders were ongoing to contract a rig to recommence activity in Ghana in 2021.

A comprehensive review of the investment and production optimisation plans for Jubilee and TEN, which are designed to realise the full potential of both assets and to maximise value for all stakeholders, is currently under way.

This review is being conducted in consultation with the Joint Venture Partners and support from experts.