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Offshore oil and gas production has resumed after the Jubilee Partners successfully carried out planned maintenance work on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, which is currently moored offshore Ghana.
The offshore facility, which was shut down for maintenance in September this year for the first time since the country’s oil production began in 2010, has so far produced 83 million barrels of oil and currently, daily production is 110,00 barrels.
The operator, Tullow Oil, said during the shutdown, work carried out on the vessel included inspection and cleaning, replacement of critical safety equipment, as well as completion of the pressure relief valve recertification.
According to the Head of Communications at Tullow Oil, Bernice Natue, the planned maintenance work was carried out in less than the 21 days scheduled period, and production restarted in the afternoon of September 29, vamping up the wells to previous production levels on October, 7, 2013.
She said in line with the partners’ commitment to global maintenance and integrity standards used throughout the industry, the facility had scheduled maintenance periods. The next maintenance is scheduled for the second half of 2014.
Mr Charles Darku, General Manager of Tullow Ghana, said the partners were delighted at the timely completion of the shutdown maintenance and return to full production.
“We remain committed to regular maintenance as part of our operational culture and setting a world-class standard for the industry,” he said.
He added that before the planned shutdown, Ghanaians were informed so it was important to ensure that after the successful completion of the project, the partners inform the public about its successfully completion.
Prior to the shutdown, Mr Charles Darku said the partners embarked on the exercise as part of their culture of adhering to world-class standards of operational performance management to ensure that the vessel operated at its optimal level and over its projected lifespan.
The FPSO Kwame Nkrumah was leased to the Jubilee partners for its first year of operation at $750 million and the partners later bought the vessel after running it successfully for one year.
The facility has the capacity to process 120,000 barrels of oil per day and a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels.
Source: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu/Daily Graphic
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