Gas exports halted at Jubilee field

Tullow Oil has announced gas exports from its Jubilee field in offshore Ghana have been suspended since July 3. A technical issue with the gas compression system on the floating production, storage and offloading unit Kwame Nkrumah is responsible for the interruption. Oil production has also been constrained to around 65,000 barrels per day, but there is no effect on the field’s reservoir or resources.

“Tullow has mobilised a team of experts to rectify the fault within the gas compression system and estimates that it will take approximately a further three weeks to reinstate gas export and full oil production,” the Anglo-Irish exploration company said in a statement.

Shares in Tullow on the London Stock Exchange dropped by 1.5 percentage points in morning trading. The company is expected to release its mid-year results on July 29. The current disruption may not impact annual production forecasts as Tullow’s previous estimates took shutdowns and stoppages into account.

Gas from the Jubilee field is tied back to state-owned Ghana National Gas Company’s Sinopec-built gas processing facility in Atuabo. Tullow holds a 49.95-percent stake in the Jubilee field. It is the company’s largest discovery to date, with estimated oil reserves of 600 million-1.8 billion barrels and gas reserves of 22.7 bcm-34 bcm (800 bcf-1.2 tcf).

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