British oil producer and lead oil company in Ghana’s largest oil field, Tullow Oil says the Jubilee field has produced 22 million barrels of oil and 21 oil cargoes have been exported since commercial oil production began in the country on December 15, 2010.
In its Interim Management Statement, for the period July 1 to November 1, 2011, which Tullow issued in accordance with reporting requirements of the EU Transparency Directive, and emailed to ghanabusinessnews.com, the company says “the field is currently producing around 80,000 barrels of oil per day from eight wells with a ninth production well, J-07, currently offline while it is being sidetracked,” it adds, “the six water injection wells and two gas injection wells are now on line injecting 230,000bwpd and 85 mmscfd respectively, providing good pressure support to the field.”
The company says it has continued its strong performance in the second half of 2011.
“The Group is delivering record cashflows, underpinned by production from the Jubilee field,” it says.
Tullow however says, it will announce its full year Trading Statement and Operational Update on 18 January 2012.
On current production rates, Tullow indicates that “recently, production rates have been below expectations due to mechanical issues in certain wells related to the design of the well completions. These issues are not unusual for a new field development of this type and remedial work is currently ongoing. The J-07 sidetrack, currently under way, will incorporate a new completion design and is expected to be on stream in early 2012,” it says.
Tullow believes that these well completion issues are not expected to have any impact on field resources.
“The resolution of these issues and the contribution of the Phase 1A wells will allow field production to ramp up to facility capacity later in 2012,” the oil producer says.
According to Tullow, the Jubilee Phase 1A Plan of Development is awaiting government approval and drilling is scheduled to start in early 2012 with initial production commencing in the second quarter.
“The phased approach to field development will allow these wells to benefit from the new completion design,” it says.
It also adds that appraisal activity continued on the Enyenra and Tweneboa fields.
“In August, Tweneboa-4 was flow tested demonstrating good reservoir connectivity. In September, the Enyenra-3 well proved the up-dip extension to the Enyenra field and confirmed a continuous oil column of at least 365 metres. FEED contracts were awarded for the sub-sea and FPSO work-scopes and subject to the successful conclusion of this work and the results from remaining appraisal activity, submission of a Plan of Development is targeted for the first half of 2012,” Tullow says.
In the West Cape Three Points licence, the Akasa-1 well made a light oil discovery in August. The Makore-1 exploration well in July, encountered good quality reservoir but was water bearing at this location. The Teak-3 well is expected to reach target depth later in November.
In October, the partnership completed the first equity redetermination of the Jubilee Unit Area, it says, adding that, “the net result is that Tullow’s production interest in the Jubilee Unit Area has reduced slightly from 36.45% to 35.48%. The revised Unit equities are effective from 1 December 2011.”
Tullow’s capital expenditure for 2011 is expected to be in line with the company’s guidance of $1.5 billion. In October, it says, it increased its reserves based lending facility by $450 million to $3.45 billion and now has total debt facilities of $4.4 billion. Net Debt at 31st October 2011, was approximately $2.5 billion with unutilised debt capacity of approximately $1.2 billion.
Tullow believes that significant cash flow from Jubilee production will contribute to record full year financial results for 2011.
“Our exploration strategy has opened up a new basin in South America and we have a number of high-impact basin-opening wells across our portfolio to drill before year-end. While there have been further delays in Uganda, we remain ready to proceed towards field development following government approval. With development plans across the Group gathering pace and production continuing to grow, the outlook for the full year and for 2012 remains very positive,” it says.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
And what did the Finance Minister say? I thought he said something lower than the 22m barrerls.