Page 19 - AfrOil Week 46

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

In the letter, which was dated October 14, and proud moment.”
Amewu wrote that Eni and Springfield had In an email message to Bloomberg, he said:
made it “obvious that [they] do not intend to “We look forward to working with Eni as the
comply with the Ministry of Energy’s directives.” operator of the unitised field in maximising
Accordingly, he said, the ministry will “now the production and the economic benefits for
[impose] terms and conditions for the unitisa- all stakeholders, including the government and
tion of the Afina and Sankofa fields to ensure citizens of Ghana.”
optimum exploitation and recovery of Ghana’s The Sankofa field lies within Offshore Cape
petroleum resources.” Three Points (OCTP), a licence area that is
He also said that Eni would be the operator of believed to hold about 500mn barrels of oil and
Sankofa/Afina following unitisation. 40bn cubic metres of gas. Eni began extracting
According to the news agency, Ghana’s oil from the field in 2017. Equity in the project
Energy Ministry declined to comment when is currently split between Eni (operator), with
contacted about the matter. Eni, however, 44.44%; Vitol (Switzerland), with 35.56%; and
responded by saying it was paying close atten- Ghana National Petroleum Corp. (GNPC), with
tion to questions about Sankofa’s fate. “Eni is 20%.
in contact with all the pertinent stakeholders, Meanwhile, Springfield’s Afina field lies
including the relevant ministry in Ghana, in within West Cape Three Points-2 (WCTP-2),
order to define a way forward and evaluate any which contains around 1.5bn barrels of oil and
case for potential unitisation in accordance with 19.8 bcm of gas. The Ghanaian company has
applicable law and international good oilfield an 84% stake in the block, and its partners are
practice,” the Italian major said in a statement. GNPC and its exploration arm EXPLORCO.
For its part, Springfield indicated that it In a letter sent to the operators of both fields
favoured unitisation. Kenneth Noonoo, the earlier this year, Amewu said Ghana’s Energy
company’s corporate affairs manager, high- Ministry’s support for unitisation was based on
lighted Springfield’s status as the first independ- seismic data showing that Sankofa and Afina are
ent Ghanaian operator to take part in a project of part of the same field. The two sites have “iden-
this magnitude, remarking: “[This] is a unique tical reservoir and fluid properties,” he wrote. ™

Tullow reportedly submits revised

work plan to Kenyan government

KENYA TULLOW Oil (UK/Ireland) has reportedly met had commented on the source’s statements.
the Kenyan government’s demand for a new Kenyan authorities demanded the new
work programme for Blocks 10BB and 13T in work programme earlier this year, after raising
the South Lokichar basin. questions about the company’s budgeting prac-
According to a report from The EastAfrican tices and ability to cover the costs of the South
weekly, the company submitted an updated Lokichar project. Tullow has weathered a num-
programme to Petroleum Principal Secretary ber of financial and operational setbacks over
Andrew Kamau in late October. This is in line the last 12 months, and officials in Nairobi have
with the conditions laid down by the govern- expressed doubts about its prospects for raising
ment for granting a 15-month extension of enough money to cover the cost of the project,
Tullow’s licence, a source familiar with the mat- even with the assistance of its partners Total
ter told the newspaper. (France) and Africa Oil Corp. (Canada).
“When the government renewed Tullow’s The cost of developing Blocks 10BB and 13T
licence in September, the company was given may amount to $3bn or more, with upstream
until the end of October to come up with a work development absorbing $1.8bn worth of invest-
programme. The government was categorical ment, and the construction of an 892-km pipe-
that if the programme is not delivered within line from Hoima to Lamu another $1.2bn.
the agreed time frame, the licence will stand Tullow and its partners aim to begin production
revoked,” the source said. in 2024, with the Amosing, Ngamia and Twiga
Now that the work programme has been oilfields being the first sites to come on stream.
submitted, Tullow is on track to finalise its com- They will also build a 60,000-80,000 barrel per
prehensive field development plan (FDP) by the day (bpd) central processing facility (CPF) dur-
first quarter of 2022, he noted. The company ing the first phase of project. Then in the second
hopes to make a final investment decision (FID) phase, they will launch production at other oil-
by the end of the same year, he added. fields within its two blocks and use the CPF and
As of press time, neither Tullow nor Kamau pipeline to handle the additional volumes. ™

Week 46 18•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P19