Page 11 - AfrOil Week 07 2020

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PROJECTS & COMPANIES
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GHANA
GHANAIAN authorities have reportedly clar- ified the conditions under which Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland) will be permitted to are associ- ated gas from its o shore oil elds.
Representatives of Tullow informed Bloomb- erg last week that the company had struck an agreement with Accra on this front. Under the new deal, they said, Tullow will be permitted to burn o excess gas when necessary “to maintain the integrity of the Jubilee and TEN elds.”
e independent company explained that it would not be allowed to are gas on a regular basis, as its contract calls for delivering all asso- ciated gas extracted from Jubilee and the TEN (Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme) block to Ghana for domestic consumption. But it said it would beabletodosoattimeswhenithadnowayto move these volumes to onshore facilities.
These conditions apply occasionally, Bloomberg explained, because Ghana National Gas Co. (GNGC) is also contractually entitled to take delivery of associated gas from other inves- tors such as Italy’s Eni. When other producers provide enough gas to ll up local transporta- tion and storage capacity, Tullow’s output is not needed and becomes surplus, it noted. ( is is probably a more frequent occurrence now than it used to be, given that Tullow has reported that GNGC has been requesting lower volumes of gas.)
According to Bloomberg, Tullow declined to divulge full details of the aring agreement, and Ghana’s Energy Ministry did not respond to requests for further information.
e aring agreement is expected to help Tullow shore up its development operations in Ghana’s o shore zone.
e company has su ered disappointments there over the past year, partly because the decline in deliveries to GNGC has slowed pro- duction at Jubilee and partly because reserves have declined at the Enyenra section of the TEN
block.
The news agency also said it had learned
from sources with knowledge of the matter that Tullow’s only option, in the absence of a aring agreement, would be to pump its excess associated gas back into its o shore reservoirs. e company is reluctant to do so because it is concerned that gas injection might destabilise the reservoirs and affect future oil flows, an employee said on condition of anonymity. ™
Tullow operates Jubilee, Ghana’s biggest oil eld (Image: Tullow Oil)
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Woodside, for its part, responded by reiterat- ing its commitment to the Sangomar project. “Woodside is committed to working ... to pro- gress the Sangomar eld development, which achieved nal investment decision [status] in January 2020,” it said in a statement on Febru- ary 14.
Following the ICA ruling, FAR will remain a non-operating partner in Sangomar, with a 15% stake in the block. e remaining equity is still divided between Woodside, the operator, with 35%; Cairn Energy (Australia) with 40%, and
PetroSen, the national oil company (NOC) of Senegal, with 10%.
The partners discovered oil at Sangomar in 2014 and made a nal investment decision (FID) on the project last month. ey have esti- mated that the o shore block, which includes the Ru sque, Sangomar O shore and Sangomar Deep O shore elds, contains around 645mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in recoverable reserves.
is gure includes 485mn barrels of crude and 160mn boe of natural gas.™
Tullow Oil strikes agreement
with Ghana on offshore gas flaring
Week 07 19•February•2020 w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m P11