Turret bearing damaged on FPSO for Jubilee field off Ghana

Tullow Oil PLC said oil production from the floating production, storage, and offloading vessel in Jubilee field offshore Ghana will restart in about 2 weeks.

Oil production and gas export from the field can continue but under revised operating and offtake procedures, including use of a dynamically positioned shuttle tanker with a capacity of 250,000 bbl and a storage tanker with a capacity of 1 million bbl. Tullow said the two tankers are in place, but that additional time is required to implement new procedures and receive required approvals.

Earlier this year Tullow said it had notified the government of Ghana and partners that it was reducing the degree of rotation of the Kwame Nkrumah FPSO following an inspection of the turret area, but that oil production and gas export were continuing as normal (OGJ Online, Feb. 18, 2016).

A subsequent technical investigation confirmed the turret bearing on the FPSO has been damaged and is no longer able to rotate as originally designed. A project team is working on a permanent solution.

Tullow’s production guidance will be reissued once the new operating arrangements have stabilized. The company did not provide a current field production number. Its full-year results for 2015 indicated gross production from Jubilee in 2015 averaged 102,600 b/d, with 36,400 b/d net to Tullow. Its forecast for 2016 was 101,000 b/d.

The company said it has hull and machinery insurance and business interruption insurance.