[ 2016-04-27 ]

Main bearing of FPSO damaged

The main bearings aiding the rotation of the
Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO)
vessel, the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, are damaged,
prompting the managers of the facility to tie the
vessel to two tug boats to hold it in control, the
Petroleum Commission (PC) has said.

The PC, in a statement issued in Accra and made
available to the Daily Graphic, said the external
turret designed to accommodate flexible risers —
electrical pipings which connect sub-sea
production to the surface processing facility —
had become malfunctioning.


The turret has a moving component (the bearing
system) which allows the FPSO to rotate around the
stationary turret component which is attached to
the mooring system.

That, officials of the commission said, had
necessitated the extension of the routine
maintenance period, thereby disrupting crude oil
production and gas export to the Ghana National
Gas Company (GNGC).

The FPSO was shut down on March 20, 2016 for a
two-week planned routine maintenance but
production operation has not resumed due to
technical challenges on the turret.

The situation has led to a reduction in the
production of power, as thermal plants that are
dependent on gas have limited their production due
to the unavailability of gas.

Investigations


The PC said a team headed by Tullow Ghana was
investigating the cause of the malfunction, after
which a decision would be taken on the long-term
solution to address the challenge.

The statement said international certification
bodies with expertise in technical assessment,
advisory and risk management, Det Norske Veritas
of Norway and Germanischer Lloyd of Germany (DNV
GL), were providing assurance for the work.

It said a two-member team from the commission, led
by the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE)
Manager and the Inspection Engineer, were part of
the team monitoring progress of work on the FPSO.

Gas export

The statement said officials had situated a
dynamic positioning (DP) tanker on location to
offload crude oil from the FPSO to a storage
tanker to enable the resumption of production of
crude oil on the Jubilee Fields.

An export tanker is said to have come alongside
the storage tanker to undertake a ship-to-ship
transfer, so that production could start, the
Daily Graphic has gathered.

The PC said it appreciated the concerns and the
impact the challenges with the FPSO were having on
the economy.

“However, as it is with complex systems of this
nature, unforeseen challenges may occur and
stakeholders are deploying all efforts to ensure
that operations resume as soon as possible,” the
statement said.

Source - Daily Graphic

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