The first phase of oil drilling in the Jubilee Fields is expected to yield about 278 million barrels of oil, an official of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), said on Monday.
"The Phase One development of the Jubilee Field is based on a conservative recoverable reserve of about 278 million barrels," Mr. Michael Aryeetey, a Senior Geologist at GNPC, said at the opening of a two-day All Africa Energy Summit in Accra.
He said the first phase involved the drilling of up to 17 wells, out of which nine would be oil producers, six to inject water into the reservoir and two wells for gas injection.
Ghana discovered oil in commercial quantities in 2007 and initial appraisal indicates that there are at least 600 million barrels of light crude oil to be drilled, but according to Mr. Aryeetey, the recent appraisal
indicates that there are 800 million barrels of light crude oil, with an upside potential of about two billion barrels.
First oil is expected in the fourth quarter of 2010 and Mr. Aryeetey said preparations were on course to meet the set target.
"The Jubilee Field will be developed in Phase One via a Floating, Production, Storage and Off-take vessel and other sub sea equipment, which are currently under construction at the Jurong Shipyard in Singapore and due to be completed ahead of schedule," Mr. Aryeetey said.
He said GNPC and its partners had also adopted a system of batch drilling to increase efficiency, speed up drilling and reduce well cost.
Mr. Aryeetey said government had also adopted a strategy to prevent gas flaring during the production of crude oil, saying that GNPC was
implementing a natural gas transmission and processing project in that respect.
He said $250 million initial investment was needed to make the project succeed, saying that GNPC was currently looking for a 50 per cent equity partner for the project.
Mr. Aryeetey said the project would include trunk lines to transport wet gas to onshore processing plants and pipelines to evacuate dry gas to power plants offshore, and natural gas liquids such as LPG and condensate, would also be available for domestic use and for export.
He noted that in order to ensure responsible crude oil production, government had assigned a team of experts in the oil industry to develop a
master plan for the petroleum sector.
This, Mr. Aryeetey said, was to ensure good governance in the oil sector, and proper application of accruing revenues to benefit the immediate communities and the entire country.
He said there were incentive packages for companies, which would create linkages with local partners and/or train local people to participate in the oil industry.
The summit is being attended by about a 100 participants including representatives of oil and gas companies in Africa, policy makers and
non-government organizations.