Following an issue with the turret bearing on the Jubilee field FPSO, offshore Ghana, the oil exploration and production company Tullow Oil said on Thursday that off-take and production from the field will resume in the next few days.

A technical investigation of the Jubilee field FPSO Kwame Nkrumah turret bearing has confirmed that it is no longer able to rotate as originally designed leading to new operating procedures being implemented.

These include the vessel being put on “heading control” which requires the use of tugs to minimise vessel rotation and revised offtake procedures, including the use of a dynamically-positioned shuttle tanker and a storage tanker.

Tullow said that revised operating procedures were being implemented at the Jubilee field with new equipment and approvals in place. Sea water injection resumed on April 23, 2016 and off-take is expected to re-start in the next few days with production to follow shortly thereafter, said the oil company.

These activities and the two week planned maintenance shutdown have impacted gross production from the Jubilee field which averaged 80,300 bopd (28,500 bopd net), for the first quarter 2016.

According to Tullow’s update on Thursday, a project team has been established to review the root cause of the problem and determine the optimum design of the permanent solution of the Jubilee turret issue. A decision on the solution is expected in the next few months.

Tullow is the operator of the field with 35.48% interest. Tullow’s partners are Kosmos and Anadarko, each with 24.08% interest, and GNPC and Petro SA with 13.64% and 2.73% interest, respectively.

Aidan Heavey, Tullow Oil CEO, said: “It has been a very busy start to the year for Tullow. In West Africa, we have made excellent progress with the TEN Project which remains on time and on budget while a highly experienced project team are dealing with the turret issues on the Jubilee field FPSO.”

TEN Project

Tullow also said on Thursday that its TEN project offshore Ghana “is making excellent progress” and it was over 90 per cent complete. The project remains within budget and on schedule with first oil expected between July and August 2016, the oil company stated.

The FPSO Prof. John Atta Mills sailed from Singapore on January 23 and arrived in Ghanaian waters on March 2, 2016. The FPSO mooring operations are complete, the vessel is now being connected to the subsea infrastructure via the risers and umbilicals and the commissioning of these systems is under way, Tullow informed.

According to the company, six of the eleven pre-drilled wells are now completed, with the seventh completion under way and the overall subsea installation campaign, comprising approximately 35,000 tonnes of equipment, has also reached over 90 per cent completion.