Vitol and Eni commence OCTP development in Ghana

Dutch multinational commodity trading company Vitol inaugurated the Offshore Cap Three Point (OCTP) development in Ghana yesterday, alongside partners Eni and the Ghana National Petroleum Company.

Located some 60 kilometres off the Ghanaian coast in 600-1000 metres of water, the OCTP licence comprises the Gye Nyame non-associated gasfield and the Sankofa fields. Two of the Sankofa fields – Sankofa East Cenomanian and Sankofa East Campanian – are oilfields. Sankofa Main and East are both non-associated gasfields.

Eni is the operator of the OCTP licence with a 47.2-percent stake in the project. Vitol holds 37.8 percent and the Ghana National Petroleum Company owns the remaining 15 percent.

Valued at $7 billion, the project aims to unlock 42.2 bcm (1.5 tcf) of gas-in-place, enough to fuel Ghana’s thermal power stations for the next 15 years. It is expected to result in more than 700 MW of new power generation capacity coming online by 2017.

The OCTP development will utilise subsea production systems, connected to a floating, production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel via flowlines and risers. After processing, the gas will be fed into a pipeline to receiving stations on the coast, where it will be compressed and injected into the country’s Western Corridor gas pipeline.

The OCTP project will also target the estimated 500 million barrels of oil-in-place. First production is expected by 2017 through early 2018, after which output will be ramped up to reach 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent in 2019. Using the FPSO for storage, the oil will be loaded onto tankers for export.