A drilling moratorium, which has prevented drilling on the TEN fields (Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme) offshore Ghana, has been lifted after a tribunal decided the work didn't violate a border with the Ivory Coast.
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Image from Tullow. |
The Special Chamber of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg made its decision with regard to the maritime boundary dispute between Ghana and Ivory Coast late last week. Their ruling laid down a new maritime boundary, which does not affect the TEN fields, says Tullow Oil.
"Tullow will now work with the government of Ghana to put in place the necessary permits to allow the restart of development drilling in the TEN fields," says Tullow. The firm expects to resume drilling around the end of the year, enabling production from the TEN fields to start to increase towards the FPSO design capacity of 80,000 bo/d.
In July, Tullow said that, during 1H 2017, the TEN fields performed in line with expectations, averaging 48,000 b/d (net: 22,500 b/d) with full year gross production guidance unchanged at 50,000 b/d (net: 23,600 b/d).
In June 2017, a final commissioning capacity test and facility blowdown was completed demonstrating that the FPSO can operate at its design capacity of 80,000 b/d and at higher rates as indicated by a recent 24- hour test conducted at 100,000 b/d. The testing however identified an issue with the FPSO’s flaring system which has been addressed but required a 10-day shutdown of the facility, says Tullow. Final commissioning is expected to be completed in 2H 2017.
Paul McDade, CEO, said: “Tullow looks forward to continuing to work constructively with the Governments of both Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire following the conclusion of this process. While the TEN fields have performed well during the period of the drilling moratorium, we can now restart work on the additional drilling planned as part of the TEN fields’ plan of development and take the fields towards their full potential.”
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