Offshore staff
LONDON -- All planned development wells have been drilled on the Jubilee field offshore Ghana, according to Tullow Oil.
The semisub Eirik Raude will shortly start work on completion operations, installing downhole equipment to provide the production and water/gas injection capacity needed to deliver first oil late in 2010.
Tullow says that results from the wells remain in line with pre-drill expectations. Also, a water injection test towards the end of 2009 proved well communication over a distance of up to 6 km (3.7 mi), with water injection rates of over 23,000 b/d.
Construction of the field’s FPSO in Singapore is on schedule, and all process moduels have been loaded onto the main deck. Module integration and commissioning activity is under way, and the external turret should be installed next month. The vessel is due to sail to Ghana in the spring.
All subsea equipment for the project has been fabricated, and is currently being transported to Ghana from the construction yards in Finland, France, and the US. Installation vessels will soon start installing flowlines and seabed piles, manifolds and control umbilicals – this program should take six to nine months to complete.
Tullow is also active in deepwater exploration in the area. The successful recent Tweneboa-2 appraisal well on the DeepWater Tano block (Tullow 49%) is being deepened to test further exploration potential beneath the Tweneboa field.
On completion of this well, the Atwood Hunter will spud the Dahoma-1 exploration well in February in the West Cape Three Points block, targeting Odum and Jubilee-age turbidites, followed by Mahogany-5, the last of three Jubilee Southeast appraisal wells (for the time being) in the same concession.
Tullow’s current drilling plan for 2010 includes seven wells offshore Ghan,a, one off Liberia, two off Sierra Leone, and one each off Guyana and French Guiana. On the Guyane Maritime license (French Guiana), the partners have identified various Jubilee-type leads in the southeastern part of the block. A large 3D seismic acquisition program which started in September is nearing completion. The first well could be drilled in December.
01/27/2010
