Ghana's TEN Flows First Oil

First oil has flowed from the Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme (TEN) fields offshore Ghana to the production ship, FPSO Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, UK-based Tullow Oil announced August 18.

Tullow as operator said that first oil was achieved “on time and on budget” three years after the plan of development was approved by Ghana’s government in May 2013. It said the TEN start-up process is well advanced, and that it expects oil production to ramp-up gradually towards the FPSO’s capacity of 80,000 b/d (gross) through the rest of 2016.

Tullow is TEN operator with a 47.175% stake; its partners are US firms Anadarko and Kosmos (each 17%), state Ghana National Petroleum Corporation 15% and South African state PetroSA 3.875%. 

FPSO Prof. John Evans Atta Mills is named after a Ghanaian politician who became President in 2009 but died in office in 2012 

Its statement however did not say whether plans to produce early gas from TEN in 1H2017 and to shut down its nearby Jubilee oil and gas field for 8-12 weeks had yet been cleared by government*. Early gas from TEN would partly offset a halt in Jubilee gas supplies during the stoppage.

Tullow CEO Aidan Heavey thanked its partners and the government: “I also congratulate the project team, our contractors and sub-contractors for delivering this project on time and on budget and with great skill and professionalism and commend them for their commitment to the participation of Ghanaian staff and companies in the project."

Tullow estimates that TEN average annualised production in 2016 will be roughly 23,000 b/d gross (11,000 b/d net to Tullow).

* a Tullow spokesman told NGW August 19 that talks about early gas from TEN with the Ghanaian government are ongoing, and that an update is expected to be given at Tullow's next trading statement in November.

Mark Smedley