Tullow Oil’s production levels fell some in Q1, following issues at its Jubliee field, offshore Ghana, which the company said is due to resume operations in the next few days.
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Image of the FPSO Prof. John Atta Mills. From Tullow. |
According to Tullow, production for West Africa came in at an average of 59,200 b/d, and 6500 boe/d for Europe.
“This was marginally below expectations due to the need to implement new Jubilee off-take procedures at the end of March following damage to the Jubilee FPSO turret bearing,” the company said.
In addition, the FPSO turret bearing issues are expected to affect the company’s full year 2016 average working interest production that is likely to be below current guidance of 73-80,000 b/d, Tullow said.
However, Tullow does anticipate for new Jubilee off-take procedures being implemented with off-take and production to resume in the next few days.
Tullow first experienced issues at Jubilee with the FPSO’s bearing in mid-February.
After conducting a technical investigation during the period of the Jubilee’s turret bearing, it was discovered that it is no longer able to rotate as originally designed leading to new operating procedures being implemented.
“Procedures include the vessel being put on "heading control" which requires the use of tugs to minimize vessel rotation and revised offtake procedures, including the use of a dynamically-positioned shuttle tanker and a storage tanker. Revised operating procedures are being implemented at the Jubilee field with new equipment and approvals in place. Sea water injection resumed on 23 April 2016 and offtake is expected to re-commence in the next few days with production to follow shortly thereafter,” Tullow said. “These activities and the two week planned maintenance shutdown have impacted gross production from the Jubilee field which averaged 80,300 b/d, for the first quarter 2016.”
Tullow has established a root cause to the turret issue, and a solution is expected in the next few months.
“It has been a very busy start to the year for Tullow. In West Africa, we have made excellent progress with the TEN Project which remains on time and on budget while a highly experienced project team are dealing with the turret issues on the Jubilee field FPSO,” Aidan Heavey, Tullow CEO said.
TEN
At the TEN project, Tullow has completed more than 90%, with first oil on target for July-August.
The FPSO Prof. John Atta Mills sailed from Singapore on 23 January and arrived in Ghanaian waters on 2 March. The FPSO mooring operations are complete, the vessel is now being connected to the subsea infrastructure via the risers and umbilicals and the commissioning of these systems is under way.
Six of the 11 pre-drilled wells are now completed, with the seventh completion under way. The overall subsea installation campaign, comprising approximately 35,000-tonne of equipment, has also reached over 90% completion. Given the mid-year start-up and ramp-up in 2H, Tullow estimates that TEN average annualized production in 2016 will be around 23,000 b/d.
Europe
Tullow hit oil at the Wisting Central 2 long reach horizontal well in the Barents Sea, some 5km south-west of the Wisting discovery well.
The well encountered an oil column of 22m in a 1402m horizontal section with 1250m of net light oil pay. A constrained production test was carried out with a flow rate of approximately 5000 boe,d demonstrating excellent reservoir properties and valuable development potential. Drilling was completed in early April, and Tullow successfully explored and appraised the Wisting South and Wisting West segments of the field, which included a production test in the Stø formation.
The well results are expected to provide an increase of in-place volumes. The next operated well planned in Norway is on the Rome prospect in PL776, which is expected to commence in July 2016.
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