Ghana’s oil output has been boosted with the start of production from the Tweneboa, Enyenra & Ntomme (TEN) project in August.

The oilfield, which is expected to peak at about 80,000 bpd in 2018 has produced its first barrel, and is expected to maintain a steady flow of about 20,000 bpd in 2016.
We believe this has increased Ghana’s average oil output to over 100,000 bpd in 2016, considering ongoing challenges at the Jubilee oil field, which is yet to resume 2015 peak level production of 115,000 bpd.

Based on existing fields and field development plans Ghana crude oil output is estimated to be over 240,000 bpd by 2019. This could potentially make Ghana the fourth largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020, based on existing fields and planned field development in the top ten oil producing countries in the region.

The TEN field, operated by Tullow Oil, is estimated to hold about 240 million barrels of oil and 60 million barrels of oil equivalent gas reserves. The full field development plan will involve the drilling of 24 wells in total, comprising water and gas injections wells and production wells.

The current production is being undertaken from the first 10 wells of the 24 planned wells. The remaining wells will be drilled from 2017 to achieve peak output by October 2017 while gas output is expected to begin in 2018. The development of the TEN field was achieved on schedule and within the budget expected.

This was achieved despite some disruption following Côte d’Ivoire’s dispute with Ghana over maritime borders, which would have affected operations on the TEN field. However, Ghana won the suit and was allowed to proceed with the TEN field.

Furthermore, the development of the TEN project utilised a considerable level of local content in its development, affirming the potential of the Ghanaian oil field servicing segment.
This could be potentially good training ground for future projects in Ghana such as the MTA fields to be developed by US Independent Kosmos Energy and partners, among others.