Kosmos and partners to drill more oil wells

Spread (lead) March 03/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

KOSMOS Energy and its partners have raised $700 million to lease a floating rig to drill additional wells to the west of Cape Three Points of the Tano Basin in the Western Region.
The rig is expected to arrive in the country in September to work for three years.
The President of Kosmos Energy, Mr James Musselman, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic in Accra, said the lease formed part of efforts to intensify the search for more oil in the country’s deep waters.
“It is the intention of the group to ensure that eight wells are drilled by the end of the year,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said, the Songa Saturn, a deep-water floating drilling rig that found Ghana’s second oil in the Odum-1 Well about a week ago, would begin the drilling of the third well, Mahogany-2, before the end of the week.
Songa Saturn, which arrived from Equatorial Guinea, is expected to leave for Libya after its expedition in Ghanaian waters at a later date.
The company has so far been highly successful with its expedition in the deep waters of Ghana, following the striking of excellent quality oil in both wells it had drilled in the Cape Three Points area in the past eight months. The wells are the Mahogany-I and Odum-I.
He said the first rig, Belford Dolphin, which found oil in the Mahogany-1 Well, would also start drilling four more wells, beginning June this year, as part of the company’s intensified programmes.
Mr Musselman had earlier announced that Ghana would begin drawing significant quantities of crude oil next year from the fields west of Cape Three Points.
“The exercise we have embarked on is a very expensive one but the company is determined to ensure that it accomplishes its task,” he said.
Following the oil find, a two-day National Oil and Gas Forum was held in Accra to discuss what actions needed to be taken before actual drilling starts.
The forum, which was attended by a wide spectrum of stakeholders from Norway, Canada, Nigeria, Azerbaijan and Ghana, was organised along four thematic areas: “Turning Oil and Gas Wealth into Sustainable and Equitable Development”, “Entrenching Transparency and Stakeholder Engagement”, “Effective Management of the Oil and Gas Sector” and “Safeguarding Security and the Environment”.
Mr Musselman said it cost the company between $40 million and $50 million to drill one well but said the company was so far satisfied with the results and expressed the hope that future expenditure would not be in vain.
Asked about his impressions of the forum, he said, “This forum is simply amazing; we did not expect such a thing from the government.”
He asked all Ghanaians to rally behind the effort of the government in its quest to find ways of managing and using revenue from the find when full production began.
“We have been to other countries but nothing of that nature had happened there and we need to give a thumbs up for the President for the initiative,” he added.