Special topics
Dr. Steve Manteaw, Chairman of the Civil Society Platform on Oil & Gas, says the repair of FPSO Kwame Nkrumah could last for eight more weeks in short-term and over five months in the long term.Dr Manteaw therefore called for holistic measures to address the challenges instead of the current adhoc steps.
Speaking at a workshop for Financial & Economic Journalists, Dr. Manteaw warned that Ghana could return to the dreadful days of ‘dumsor.’
He said the FPSO should be decoupled from its production wells and sent to Singapore or other countries with dry-dock for replacement of the turret.
About six weeks ago, government disclosed that the FPSO was shutting down for some maintenance work which will last two weeks. However, the latest extension ended on Saturday, April 23, 2016.
Pledges by officials of Tullow, GRIDCo and the Minister of Petroleum that the challenge would soon be surmounted have failed to materialize.
Experts have called for a replacement of the turret in the event engineers fail to fix the faulty bearing and that can be done at the dry-dock.
Power Loss
The shutdown of the FPSO, coupled with limited gas from Nigeria for Sunon Asogli Power Plant, has knocked off some 300 to 450 megawatts of power.
No Gas
Gas flow from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant to the Aboaze Thermal Enclave and the Ameri Gas Plant has been curtailed.
Gas from the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) pipeline has also reduced to only 6mscf from 120mscf due to the damage of some pipelines in Nigeria.
Revenue Loss
It is estimated that crude oil production for 2016 is 38.73 million barrels, making an average of 106,000 barrels of oil per day.
A 14-day shutdown will mean an average of 1.5 million bopd shortfall in production.
Based on government’s estimated 20 percent share of production, Ghana could lose about 296,800 barrels of oil over the period, representing a revenue loss of $8.9 million based on an estimated $30 price per barrel.
Dr Manteaw argued that the substantial revenue loss could lead to a review of the budget estimates
