Ghana is set to build its third Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel as part of the process to make the country an oil hub in West Africa.
There is an ongoing tender process to select what the government terms “the best” contractor to build the FPSO and for it to be delivered in the last quarter of 2016. Actual oil and gas production will start in early 2017.
Ghana currently has one FPSO, named after the country’s first president, Dr Kwame Nrkumah. It was delivered to Ghana in 2010 and is currently producing an average of 120,000 barrels of crude oil daily.
A second FPSO, named FPSO J.E.A. Mills, which is currently under construction in Singapore, is 30 per cent complete and would be delivered in the last quarter of 2015. Commercial production of oil would commence on it before the end of 2016.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Singapore, after meeting officials in Singapore to promote investment in Ghana yesterday, the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, said the third FPSO would produce more than 150 million cubic feet of gas daily.
“Our oil and gas industry is taking shape and Ghana is gradually expanding its production activities. That will really help strengthen our economy,” Mr Buah stressed.
The minister is on a working visit to Singapore to inspect the progress of work on the second FPSO, which is being constructed at the Jurong Shipyard Limited (JSL).
Officials of Tullow Oil plc, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the Ministry of Finance, Ghana Petroleum Commission and journalists are on the tour with the minister.
Large quantities of oil and gas have been discovered offshore Cape Three Points in the Western Region by Eni and Vitol, both oil companies.