Ghana's TEN field to pump first oil

Ghana will see its second commercial oil field, the Deep Water Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN), start pumping oil on Thursday.

Joe Mensah, Vice-President and Country Director for American oil exploration company, KOSMOS Energy, said the new field would be commissioned by Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama.

The Floating Production Storage and Offloading Atta Mills, which will be used on the TEN field, is designed for a capacity of 80,000 barrels of oil per day (80,000 bopd).

Mensah stressed that the production between first oil in August 2016 and the end of this year will be 23,000 bopd.

"Ghana has so much and if we do things right, we will never go hungry," the Kosmos official added.

The TEN field discovery was made in 2009 and a Plan of Development (PoD) was approved in 2013.

The government of Ghana has operating interest of 15 percent with the other partners holding the rest.

They are Tullow Oil, 47.18 percent; Kosmos Energy, 17 percent; Anadarko, 17 percent; and Petro S.A, 3.82 percent.

The associated gas produced from TEN will be re-injected into the Ntomme reservoir gas cap until gas export due to commence 12 months after field start-up begins.

"At the time the TEN PoD was approved in May 2013, oil prices were above 100 U.S. dollar per barrel, so having to operate TEN at much lower oil prices presents a commercial challenge," Mensah indicated. Endit