Offshore Ghana's Jubilee Project Finds Success With Cooperation and Rapid Development

Abstract

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper OTC 23430, ’Jubilee Project Overview,’ by Dennis McLaughlin, Kosmos Energy, prepared for the 2012 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, 30 April-3 May. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The Jubilee project was an ambitious challenge for the first significant development offshore Ghana. The joint venture used a split operatorship to execute a world-class deepwater project in an area with no existing infrastructure in less than 3 years from the start of concept selection. Despite several significant technical and commercial hurdles, the project achieved excellent health/safety/environment (HSE), schedule, and cost performance. Jubilee’s unique circumstances justified a very aggressive appraisal development strategy and dictated an unconventional approach to organizing and managing the project, which ultimately was highly successful. Introduction The Jubilee field was discovered in June 2007 in the Gulf of Guinea, approximately 60 km offshore western Ghana. It is a very large light/sweet oil accumulation in 1200–1500 m of water. The Jubilee partners, along with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), decided in January 2008 to develop the field using a phased approach after just one appraisal well. Discovery The Jubilee field was discovered offshore Ghana by Kosmos in June 2007 with the Mahogany-1 wildcat well on the West Cape Three Points block near its western boundary (Fig. 1). A large oil field was confirmed by the Hyedua-1 well drilled in August 2007, 5 km southwest of Mahogany-1, across the lease line on the Deepwater Tano block. The field was Ghana’s first significant oil find after some 40 years of offshore exploration, and it was also one of the largest fields discovered in the last decade offshore Africa. Understandably, the discovery was a source of immense pride and hope in Ghana, and, consequently, the Mahogany discovery was renamed Jubilee field to commemorate Ghana’s golden jubilee—50 years of independence—which was celebrated in 2007. The discovery holds a light (37°API), sweet, high-gas/oil-ratio crude and covers approximately 110 km2 across the two blocks. Resources are located in five stacked zones of thick, high-quality rock.