[ 2016-02-11 ]

$7b ENI OCTP deal inflated by $2bn for kickbacks
The $7 billion OCTP Sankafa gas deal between the
Government of Ghana and Italian oil firm ENI is
bloated by at least $2 billion, out of which some
Ghanaian government officials will cut their
kickbacks, the Minority in parliament has
alleged.

“As has been stated earlier by the
communications directorate of the NPP, it does
appear that the contract is bloated by between 2
and 3 billion US dollars to the disadvantage of
Ghana,” the Minority said at a press conference
in Parliament on Thursday February 11 addressed by
William Owuraku Aidoo, MP for Afigya Kwabre South
and member of the Mines and Energy Committee of
the House.

The Minority wondered why the Government of Ghana
would bend backwards to “sprinkle such quantum
of roses in the way of ENI and Vitol.”

“In doling two billion dollars out, God knows
how much somebody in government will be taking as
kickback… The agreement stinks, it is a rip off
and cannot be allowed,” the Minority said.

The OCTP Integrated Oil and Gas Project includes
the combined development of the Sankofa Main,
Sankofa East, Gye Nyame, Sankofa East Cenomanian
and Sankofa East Campanian fields. The former
three are non-associated gas fields while the
latter two are oil fields. The development of the
fields started in January 2015.

The fields are located within the OCTP block in
the Tano Basin, at water depths ranging from 600m
to 1,000m and approximately 60km off the coast of
Ghana. The area covered by the fields is
approximately 694km².

Eni's subsidiary Eni Ghana Exploration and
Production is the operator of the block and holds
a majority stake of 47.22% in the same. Vitol
Upstream Ghana holds a 37.78% interest in the
block and state-owned Ghana National Petroleum
Corporation holds a 15% interest, with an option
to further increase its share by an additional
5%.

The overall investment on the project is estimated
to reach $7bn. The World Bank is providing a
partial risk guarantee for the project.

OCTP reserves and production

The offshore fields are estimated to hold
approximately 1.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas
and approximately 500 million barrels of oil. The
reserves are expected to continuously feed Ghana's
thermal power plants for more than 20 years.

Oil production from the project is expected to
start in 2017 and peak at 80,000 barrels of oil a
day in 2019, whereas gas production is expected to
start in 2018, with a daily production capacity of
170 million cubic feet. This would be enough to
generate an additional 1,100MW of power for
Ghana.

Ghana's OCTP development details

The development plan calls for the installation of
subsea production systems, in addition to
flowlines and risers connected to a leased
floating, production, storage and offloading
(FPSO) vessel.

The contract for the chartering, operation and
maintenance of the FPSO was awarded to Yinson
Holdings in January 2015. The charter period is
for a term of 15 years with an option to extend it
by five more years. The contract value is
currently estimated at $2.54bn, but will increase
to $3.25bn if Eni opts for the additional
five-year chartering extension.

OCTP FPSO details

The OCTP FPSO will be converted from the Yinson
Genesis tanker (formerly Ulriken) which, Yinson
Holdings acquired from Golden State Petro in
October 2014. It will have a storage capacity of
1.7 million barrels, oil processing capacity of
58,000 barrels a day, gas injection capacity of
150 million standard cubic feet a day (Mmscfd),
and maximum future gas-export capacity of
210Mmscfd.

OCTP gas and oil export facilities

Gas from the fields will be processed in the FPSO
and transported via a pipeline to onshore
gas-receiving facilities located near the village
of Sanzule in the western region of Ghana. The gas
will further be compressed and injected into the
Western Corridor Gas Pipeline and supplied to
domestic industrial customers. Crude oil will be
stored in the FPSO and will be supplied to
international markets by means of tankers.

Ghana's Ministry of Energy has further agreed to
enhance the gas transmission system with
compression stations and connections to industrial
users, to complement the OCTP project.

Discovery and drilling of the Offshore Cape Three
Points fields

The Sankofa field was discovered in September
2009, with the drilling of the Sankofa-1 well in a
water depth of 866m and to a total depth of
3,704m. It encountered high-quality reservoir
sands containing 36m of net oil and gas.

The well is situated approximately 35km east of
the Jubilee fields.

The field was further appraised in April 2011 by
drilling the Sankofa-2 well at a water depth of
864m. It flowed 29.5Mmscfd of high-quality gas and
1,000boepd of 52° API condensate during test. It
confirmed the presence of 35m net gas and
condensate sands of the Cretaceous age.

The Gye Nyame field was discovered in July 2011 by
drilling the Gye Nyame 1 well. The well was
drilled to a total depth of 3,349m at a water
depth of 519m and encountered significantly thick
gas and condensate sands. The field is located
16km east of the Sankofa field.

The Sankofa East field was discovered by drilling
the Sankofa East-1X well in September 2012. The
well was drilled to a total depth of 3,650m in
825m of water, and encountered 28m of gas and
condensate and 76m of gross oil pay in cretaceous
sandstones. It produced about 5,000 barrels of
high-quality oil a day during test.

The Sankofa East 2A well, the first appraisal well
of the Sankofa East, was drilled in January 2013
to confirm the extension of the oil accumulation
in the Cenomanian sequence. It was drilled to a
total depth of 4,050m in water depth of 990m and
encountered 23m of gas and 17m of net gas, as well
as 32m of net oil in cretaceous sands.

Source - classfmonline

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