Tullow Ghana Limited, one of the companies involved in oil exploration in the country, has reaffirmed its commitment to start producing oil by the last quarter of next year. It said it was working diligently and feverishly to produce first-class quality products. The company is expected to produce 120,000 barrels of oil a day when it starts production. The Vice-President of External Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility of Tullow Ghana, Ms Rosalind Kainyah, made this known when she led a three-member delegation to pay a courtesy call on the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Ibraham Awal, in Accra yesterday. The other members of the delegation were Mr Kofi Esson, the Government and External Relations Manager, and Okyeame Ampadu-Agyei, the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager. Tullow Oil Plc is one of Europe's leading independent exploration and production companies operating a balanced worldwide portfolio which stretches across Africa, Europe, South Asia and South America. The company is a versatile and balanced group with a portfolio of quality oil and gas assets managed by a team with excellent technical, commercial and financial skills. Its exploratory successes in the Jubilee and adjoining fields have made Ghana one of Tullow's most important concessions. Ms Kainyah said the company was committed to improving the lot of the people in its area of operation to ensure that they led better lives. According to her, the company would not only provide employment opportunities for the people, but also equip them and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with the requisite training. She explained that oil revenue would be used for the benefit of the people and described the discovery of oil in the country as a blessing. Ms Kainyah said the company would engage in sound environmental practices and indicated that its environmental impact assessment (EIA) would be made public next week by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Mr Awal urged Tullow Ghana to learn from the problems some oil exploration companies were facing in other countries to avoid confrontation with the local people. He pledged the commitment of the GCGL to partner and work with the company and urged it to take advantage of the GCGL's newspapers to do business in the country. According to him, the GCGL had 85 per cent of the market share, of which Tullow could take advantage as it operated in the country, adding that it should not wait until there were problems. He said G-Pak, a subsidiary of the GCGL, was also available for the printing of high quality labels . For his part, Mr Esson said the company was sponsoring 14 members of staff of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNP C) to pursue practical studies in various disciplines in oil and gas exploration and production, adding that 10 of them were into petroleum engineering. Tullow has interests in two exploration licences offshore Ghana - Deepwater Tano and West Cape Three Points. Both blocks lie in deep water and in 2007 two successful exploration wells located a substantial discovery which straddles the boundary between the two blocks, known as the Jubilee Field. In 2008, an accelerated Jubilee appraisal and development programme commenced on the field. The first appraisal well, Mahogany-2, was drilled in May, followed by the Hyedua-2 and Mahogany-3 wells at the end of2008. The results from these wells indicated that Jubilee is a continuous stratigraphic trap with combined hydrocarbon columns in excess of 600 metres. Source: Emmanuel Bonney/Daily Graphic/Ghana