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Jubilee fields was the first oil field to be discovered in Ghana. The field was discovered in 2007 by an International Oil company Kosmos Energy and was developed by Tullow Oil. The field has five equity shareholders with the likes of Anadarko, Sabre Oil and Gas, Kosmos, Tullow and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation with varied equity share holding. Below is the breakdown of the holdings:
Shareholder | Equity share (%) |
Anadarko | 18 |
Sabre Oil and Gas | 4.05 |
Kosmos | 18 |
Tullow | 49.95 |
Ghana National Petroleum Corporation | 10 |
Total | 100 |
Geographically, the field is located 60 km offshore, between the Deepwater Tano and West Cape Three Points blocks off the coast of the Ghana’s Western Region in Ghana. After the discovery, appraisal for the field began at the end of 2008 and the Odum, Mahogany-2, Heydua-2 and Mahogany-3 wells were drilled.
However, Phase I development of the core field progressed at a rapid pace in 2008 with Tullow seen as the operator and Kosmos Energy as the technical operator of phase I development plan. The field was due for production in 2010, this was the best news for many citizens and stakeholders who were overwhelmed by the presence of the hydrocarbon.
Experts says the total proven reserves of the Jubilee oil field are estimated 3 billion barrels (480,000,000 m3) and production is centered on 150,000 barrels per day (24,000 m3/d). In 2012, Tullow Oil, the operator of the field couldn’t meet production target. This misfortunate caused financial distress for the Government of Ghana as well as Kosmos Energy.
The financial distress caused decline in production which led to declining revenues for the government who had budgeted for oil revenue of more than $650 million. It was later coupled with a corresponding shortfall which amounted to more than $410 million. The oil firm blamed the decline on sand contamination of the flowlines that carry the oil from the underwater wells to the storage facility on the surface.
Ghana is currently in high expectation to commission its third oil field in early July this year. Sankofa Oil Field, the third oil field is expected to pump 45,000 barrels per day, which will add up to the country’s economic and employment strength.
There has been some enormous profits from the field. In 2016, Ghana’s crude oil from the Jubilee Field was sold at an average achieved price of US$46.13per barrel which compares favorably with the average dated Brent price of US$44.01.
Hitherto, the country witnessed numerous scenarios of layoffs and termination of many contracts belonging to local companies. Many Catering and logistics organization fell prey to this in 2015. Operators of the field violated the local content law on countless occasions. The very common excuse given as reason for layoff was dwindling profit. This resulted in the dismissal of many workers with the reason of redundancy.
This year,Ghana marks ten long years of commercial oil production, and we ask the questions, what do you see. Join the conversation on @oilgasghana using the #10YrsOilProduction.