TEN Project to Start Early
Wednesday 27 July 2016
In May 2013, the Government of Ghana approved the TEN Plan of Development, Tullow’s second major operated deepwater development project. Since then, the project has remained on schedule and on budget, with first oil expected in early August.
In January 2016, the FPSO Prof. John Atta Mills left Singapore and arrived in Ghana in March where the vessel was anchored to the seabed before being connected to the risers and subsea infrastructure. The integrated facilities underwent final commissioning and testing during the second quarter of the year ahead of the start-up sequence. This involves water injection to the Enyenra reservoir, followed by oil production. This sequence will then be repeated for the Ntomme reservoir. Eight of the eleven pre-drilled wells are now completed, with the ninth to be completed this week. The total gross TEN Project capital investment to first oil is within budget at around $4 billion. Net capex expenditure to Tullow in the first half of 2016 was c.$400 million with the forecast capex in the second half of 2016 being c.$200 million as drilling completions continue through the third quarter and equipment and vessels are demobilised.
A gradual ramp-up in oil production towards the FPSO capacity of 80,000 bopd is anticipated around the end of 2016 as the facilities complete performance testing and wells are brought up to optimum flow rates. Tullow estimates that TEN average annualised production in 2016 will be around 23,000 bopd gross (net: 11,000 bopd). Drilling is not expected to resume on the TEN fields until after the resolution of the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana border dispute through the ITLOS tribunal whose decision is expected in 2017.
The associated gas produced at TEN will be re-injected into the Ntomme reservoir gas cap until gas export begins. Gas export was planned to start 12 months after field start-up, with the Tweneboa gas reservoir coming on stream a further 12 months later. However, options to accelerate associated gas export are currently being evaluated as the fabrication of the gas export facilities is ahead of schedule and is expected to be complete in late 2016, some six months early