Irish explorer Tullow Oil says that when it launches production this summer at its Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) fields in Ghana, it will add some 80,000 barrels per day to the country's oil production at a time when the world is suffering from a supply glut.
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has also projected Ghana's oil production to hit half a million barrels per day in 2020.
"We currently are producing 120,000 barrels of oil a day. That is from the Jubilee field. If you add all the additional discoveries that have been made that includes ENI, Greater Jubilee... Ghana's potential by 2020 will hit about half a million barrels of oil production a day," local media quoted Mahama as saying.
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Ghana has two major offshore oilfield projects-Jubiliee and TEN. Production levels at the Jubilee fields have typically ranged from 67,000 barrels per day to 100,000 barrels per day.
Tullow is a major stakeholder in Ghana's oil industry; however, it has been hit hard by falling oil prices. Fourth quarter results showed annual losses of $1 billion for Tullow, prompting talk of divesting some assets in Ghana.
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Aidan Heavey, Tullow's chief executive, said: "In the year ahead, we have three key priorities: ensuring continued low cost production from West Africa - including the start-up of production from TEN between July and August 2016; driving further reductions in operating costs and capital expenditure; and focusing on deleveraging the balance sheet through free cash flow generation and strategic portfolio management."
The TEN development cluster include three discoveries in Ghana's deepwater Tano Block: Tweneboa, Envenra and Ntomme-all in water depths ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 meters. Tullow has a 49.95 percent interest as the operator, while Kosmos Energy and Anadarko each have 18 percent, and Sabre Oil & Gas Holdings Ltd has 4.05 percent. The state-run Ghana National Petroleum Corporation has a 10 percent carried interest.
By James Burgess of Oilprice.com
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