The offshore oil and gas production has resumed after the Jubilee Partners successfully carried out planned maintenance on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah currently moored offshore Ghana.   The offshore facility, which was shut down in September this year for the first time since the country’s first oil in 2010 for maintenance has so far produced a total of 83 million barrels of and at current daily production rate of 110,00 barrels.

The operators, Tullow Oil said during the shutdown, the key scope of work carried out on the vessel include vessel inspections and cleaning, replacement of safety critical equipment as well as pressure relief valve recertification identified for maintenance.

According to the head of Communications at Tullow Ms Bernice Natue, the planned maintenance work lasted less than the 21 days scheduled and that production restarted in the afternoon of September 29, ramping up the wells to previous production levels on October, 7, 2013.  

She said in line with the partners’ commitment to industry global maintenance and integrity standards the facility had scheduled maintenance periods and that the next shutdown maintenance would be held in the second half of 2014.

The General Manager of Tullow Ghana, Mr Charles Darku said the partners were delighted at the timely completion of the shutdown maintenance and the return to full production.  

“We remain committed to regular maintenance as part of our operational culture and also setting a world class standard for the industry,” he said.

He said before the planned shutdown, Ghanaians were informed and that it was important therefore to ensure that after the successful completion of the project, the partners inform the public.

Prior to the shutdown, Mr. Charles Darku said the partners embarked on the exercise as part of the culture of adhering to world-class operational performance management standards to ensure that the vessel operates optimally and lives its projected lifespan.

The FPSO Kwame Nkrumah was leased to the Jubilee Partners for its first year of operation at $750 million and the Partners later bought the vessel after it took a collective decision to acquire it after successfully running it for one year.

The facility has a total processing capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil per day and with a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels.