Ghana to realise oil dreams next year

Back pg (lead) Feb 22, 2008


Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE Chief Executive Officer of Kosmos Energy, Mr James C. Musselman, has announced that Ghana will begin drawing significant quantities of crude oil next year from the fields at Cape Three Points.
He, however, did not say in what quantities the initial draw would be but stressed that “ we know it will be many barrels; we have intensified our efforts and we are very optimistic that this in going to happen latest by the middle of next year”.
Mr Musselman made the announcement at a meeting with mediamen in Accra on Wednesday and said there was still some work to be done on the reservoir.
“It is our goal to get this because of the work ahead; it is a large reservoir and we need to get early draws to know more about the reservoirs”, he added.
Kosmos Energy, late last year struck oil in the deep waters of Ghana in Cape Three Points in the Western Region.
Using one of the latest drills in the business, named the “Belford Dolphin”, the company drilled its first well, the Mahogany Well 1, at approximately 165-5,900 feet and discovered the crude oil which is said to be within the range of the best quality.
The news keeps alive Ghana’s dream of becoming an oil hub in Africa as efforts to achieve that has already received a further boost with the investment of US$100 million by the company to drill and evaluate two additional wells by the end of the first quarter of the year.
The company is expected to drill a total of six wells by the end of the year.
Mr Musselman who sounded very optimistic said the nature of the reservoir was such that the company needed to be cautious by proceeding in a manner that would not harm it.
He said the nature of the well gives indications that it could be drilled for up to 30 years and al efforts needed to be made to ensure that “we maximise the benefits from it”.
Presently, another oil rig, Songa Saturn, arrived in the territorial waters of Ghana mid November last year to drill a second well to pave the way for the commercial production of oil in Ghana.
The rig is expected to be in the deep waters of Cape Three Points in the Western Region, where the well is to be drilled.
Songa Saturn, which arrived from Equatorial Guinea, is a deep-water floating drilling rig and it is expected to leave for Libya after a three-month expedition in Ghana.
On the crucial question of how many barrels there was in the deep waters of Ghana, Mr Musselman said “we need to drill between 700 to 800 wells to be able to hit the numbers being called”.
Some have put the number of barrels at between 500 million and 1.2 billion but the President of the Kosmos stated categorically that “we do not know that yet but from the discovery and the tests done so far, the company cannot doubt the figures.”