Tullow hopes to start Ghana gas delivery from Jubilee by 2011
TULLOW Oil Plc, the Irish exploration company leading the oil search in several African countries, plans to supply its first natural gas from its Jubilee field to Ghana in 2011.
A fuel delivery agreement is expected by the end of the year, the Dublin-based company said yesterday in a presentation posted on its Web site. Tullow gas deliveries will help Ghana to reduce imports of liquified petroleum gas.
Ghana has an "imperative to develop gas market and infrastructure", Tullow said in the presentation to analysts. "Jubilee field characteristics support onshore utilisation of gas," the company said.
Tullow plans to invest about $3.2bn (€2.8bn)to develop Jubilee offshore Ghana and produce the first oil in 2010. Tullow is targeting about 4bn barrels of oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Guinea, offshore Ghana and Ivory Coast.
The Jubilee deposit will initially be able to export 30m cubic feet of gas a day, according to Tullow. Ghana's gas demand will rise about 67pc to 350m cubic feet a day in 2012.
Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and partners operate the West African Gas pipeline, which is able to deliver 120m cubic feet of gas a day to Ghana from Nigeria.
Assets
In a separate development, shares in one of Tullow's drilling partners fell sharply after it ended talks on the possible sale of assets.
Heritage Oil fell as much as 30p, or 14pc, to 180p, the steepest one-day drop since moving to the London Stock Exchange in March.
The company said on September 18 it had received an unsolicited approach and was in discussions with a third party on the possible disposal of "certain of its assets". Heritage Oil has now terminated all such discussions.
"The company believes that the best way to create shareholder value is through active, high-impact drilling programs," it said. (©Bloomberg)
- exploration
