Jubilee FPSO to be shut down in May for repair works

The Jubilee FPSO Kwame Nkrumah is expected to be shut down in May this year. This planned shutdown is to allow the FPSO undergo a general routine maintenance exercise.

There has already been one shutdown which lasted three weeks, between February and March this year.

Deputy Minister of energy and petroleum Dr. Muhammed Amin Adam, in a briefing after a working visit on the FPSO, told journalists the temporary shutdown is to allow for repair works to be carried out on the turret bearing of the oil and gas production vessel.

This according to him, will also ensure a long term solution to the frequent breakdown of the turrets.

“The turret challenge has been a major challenge for our country, we have gone to see the kind of work going on there and I’m impressed about the level of work done there,” he stated.

Dr. Amin assured that the impact of the shutdown will be minimized since Ghana Gas is now in full operation to receive about 60 million standard cubic feet of Gas every day from the TEN fields.

“From what we saw and the briefing we got from our partners, the effect of the shutdown on power generation will not be much and therefore, I will like to inform Ghanaians that there is no cause for alarm.

The previous shutdown had effects because even though Gas was coming from TEN, Ghana gas was going through maintenance and therefore we had a shortage of gas that compelled VRA to use other means including buying more crude oil to be able to address the power shortfalls, but this time around, we will not have that problem”, he Indicated.

He said government will not entertain too much shutdowns of the vessel since it has effects on the country in terms of revenue.

The Managing Director of Tullow Ghana, Charles Darku, on his part, reiterated the commitment of Tullow Ghana in finding a permanent solution to the faulty turret bearing on the floating vessel used in producing and storing oil in the field.

The visit was facilitated by Tullow Ghana and its stakeholders in the gas value chain.

Source: Daniel Kaku