Ghana approves OCTP offshore development

Eni, Vitol and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) signed today with the President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, and the Minister of Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, the agreement to proceed with the OCTP integrated oil & gas project in Ghana.

The OCTP licence comprises five fields: Sankofa Main , Sankofa East , Gye Nyame , Sankofa East Cenomanian, and Sankofa East Campanian.

The development is located in the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) licence approximately 60 km offshore the Ghanaian coast.

The Offshore Cape Three Points project is situated in water depth of 600 – 1000 m. The fields will be produced via sub-sea production systems located on the sea bed, sending the oil and gas to surface by flowlines and risers connected to a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

OCTP fields will continuously supply Ghana’s thermal power system, from 2018 to 2036.

Gas will be processed and transported via a dedicated pipeline to onshore gas receiving facilities located near the village of Sanzule on the coast in the Western Region of Ghana. Gas will be compressed and injected into the Western Corridor Gas Pipeline for transportation to industrial customers in Ghana. Oil will be stored in the FPSO and then offloaded to tankers for sale in the international market.

According to a statement by ENI, first oil is slated for 2017, first gas in 2018, with peak output of 80,000 barrels of oil per day in expected in 2019.

The development comprises oil and non-associated gas fields and will access around 41 billion cubic meters (1.45 Tcf) of gas and 500 million barrels of oil in place.

Eni has said that the OCTP fields will continuously supply Ghana’s thermal power system, from 2018 to 2036. The supply will be secured thanks to long term contracts with the Government of Ghana, Eni has added, saying that Ghana will also benefit from additional oil production starting from 2017 through GNPC’s participation in the project and royalties and taxes generated by the production, together with employment and further development of local content.

Italy’s Eni has promised the project will have a minimal environmental impact being designed for zero flaring and zero discharge. The non-associated gas, Eni has said, will provide environmental benefits feeding both existing power plants, replacing light crude oil, and new power plants, expanding the power generation capacity of the Country.

President Mahama said: “We are harnessing Ghana’s natural resources to power Ghana’s future”

“The OCTP development is a robust integrated oil and gas project that will provide the reliable energy source needed to accelerate the economic growth of Ghana by delivering a domestic solution to feed the power sector. The sanction of this significant project comes after less than 2 years from the completion of a successful exploration campaign. Once again, in the best tradition of Eni, we deliver fast-track organic growth addressing in a sustainable manner the energy requirements of the host country, in line with the Eni model in Africa‘, Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi said.

Eni, through its own subsidiary Eni Ghana, is block OCTP’s operator with a 47,22% stake. Other partners are Vitol with 37,77% and GNPC with 15%.

President Mahama said: “We are harnessing Ghana’s natural resources to power Ghana’s future. The Sankofa development will provide the reliable energy source needed to accelerate the economic growth of our country. For the first time, GNPC, working with ENI and Vitol and the World Bank is delivering a domestic solution to our power sector. This is indeed a remarkable achievement – the largest single project Foreign Direct Investment inflow to Ghana since Independence.”

Ian Taylor, President and CEO of Vitol said; “This is a transformational project for Ghana and we are proud to be a part of such an important venture. Vitol has been supplying energy to Ghana for over 25 years and we are delighted to be able to contribute to the development of Ghana’s economy through a major domestic energy solution.”