OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION: A View Through The Theodolite

GHANA INSTITUTION OF SURVEYORS
JOINT CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP
THEME
"Emerging Oil and Gas Industry:
Opportunities and Challenges for the Surveying Profession."

ABSTRACT:
ØJubilee Field Development Criteria
ØSkills requirement for Ghana’s Oil and Gas Industry
ØConcept of Local Content in Oil and Gas Development
ØChallenges in developing local expertise

CONTENT:

ØIntroduction
ØJubilee Field Development
ØBlack Gold: Blessing or Curse
ØSkills Requirements
ØLocal Content
ØRole of Surveyors
ØRecommendations/Conclusions

JUBILEE FIELD DEVELOPMENT:

ØSignificant oil/gas find off Cape Three Points by Consortium of Kosmos, Tullow, Anadarko, Sabre and GNPC announced in June/September 2007.
ØTwo blocks in pressure communication and hence being treated as same reservoir. Unitized as the Jubilee Field.Development based on 800 million to 3 billion barrels of light crude oil.

ØDevelopment Plan based on No Gas Flaring, First Oil by end 2010, Philosophy of maximising resource value.
ØPhase 1: Produce oil by end 2010.
Daily oil production of 120,000 barrels and 120 million cubic feet of gas through seabed Christmas Trees.
Produced oil transported by shuttle tankers from Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility.
Phase 2: From 2010 to 2012 to produce 250,000 barrels oil and 250 million cubic feet gas per day.

FISCAL BENEFITS FOR GHANA
•Assumptions: 120,000 barrels oil per day
US$ 60 per barrel
•Amounts to: Approx. US$ 2.8 million per day
US$ 1 billion per annum

JUBILEE FIELD DEVELOPMENT: Gas Commercialisation Plan
ØPhase 1: Produce 120 million cubic feet gas per day.
•Gas pipeline from the Field to Effasu to ship 30-50 million cubic feet gas to feed Osagyefo Thermal Plant. Rest of gas to be reinjected to improve reservoir pressure.
ØPhase 2: Produce 250 million cubic feet gas per day.
•Second pipeline to be laid to Takoradi and connected into West Africa Pipeline.
•Will also supply Aboadze Power Plant.

BLACK GOLD: BLESSING OR A CURSE
ØOil booms raise a great deal of expectations about amount of money that will be spent, about the number of jobs that will be created, and too often governments and oil companies often feed these expectations about how this new “black gold” will change everything on the ground’. Ian Gary of Oxfam America.

Norwegian Experience
ØViews oil revenues as temporary, collectively owned and to be used to insulate the nation in future when the oil runs dry.
ØEffective Institutions and Regulatory Authorities created.
ØPetroleum Fund of Norway worth over $ 200 billion.

LOCAL CONTENT
ØGovernment of Ghana formed various committees, including committee on Local Content, Infrastructure and Capacity Building for the Petroleum Industry
ØWork took cognisance of experience in other countries and the following Ghanaian Laws:
1. Ghana National Petroleum Corporation Law 1983, Act (64)
2. Petroleum Exploration and Production Law 1984 PNDCL 84
3. Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663)
4. Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act 1994 (Act 478)

ROLE OF THE SURVEYOR
ØExploration Phase – Determination of drilling sites using GPS
ØPipeline surveys, including topographic surveys, digital maps, etc.
ØBills of Materials, Asset Management, Insurance and Risk Management
ØPlanning and Land Utilisation .

CHALLENGES FOR LOCAL CONTENT
ØRelatively undeveloped industrial base
ØLack of adequate power, water and other infrastructure to support manufacturing base
ØObstacles to development of small and medium sized enterprises
ØMobilisation of capital from a developing marketResponsiveness of local businesses to opportunities in training, supply of goods and services.
RECOMMENDATIONS
ØEstablishment of a national policy on local content and transfer of technology
ØLegislation on local content, engineering, surveying and related professional practices
ØEducational institutions to introduce programmes to produce competent skills for petroleum industry
ØGovernment to support tertiary institutions to strengthen education/training programmes.

ØEducational institutions should establish links with known foreign centres for best practices
ØOil/Gas companies to be encouraged to form partnership with educational institutions to develop needed local training centres, internships, etc
ØLocal companies should form strategic alliances to increase technological base and expertise
ØLocal companies to form international strategic alliances with foreign service providers to benefit from their skills and expertise.

ING. DR. ROBERT ADJAYE.Petroleum Skills Development Institute.Accra, Ghana.Tel: 020 2019662 / radjaye@yahoo.com/psdi@skillsdev.com

Source:Ghana Surveyors Institute