Tullow Oil’s Executive Director, Paul McDade has confirmed that the proposed shutdown of the Jubilee FPSO vessel is likely to extend beyond 2018.
The company earlier this year announced that it will be shutting down the vessel for not more than three months beginning September 2017.
However, experts working on the vessel have demanded that more work be done on it to further stabilise its faulty turret bearing.
In addition to that, new details on the flaw analysis conducted on the vessel ahead of the proposed shutdown, have indicated that contrary to earlier projections: the repair exercise may extend well beyond December 2017 and the entire 2018 into 2019.
The development has sent shockwaves across the entire petroleum downstream sector and the country at large.
Tullow had earlier projected its crude oil production for 2017 at over 73,000 barrels per day (bpd) but following the development of the turret bearing issue with its Jubilee FPSO vessel, it reduced that figure by 5,000 – bringing down its production estimate for the current year to about 68,000bpd.
Commenting on what the company’s response would be to this development, Executive Director Paul McDade said: “the business we are in always give us trouble and we will continue to manage themâ€.
On the national front, government is yet disclose a full assessment on what the impact of this prolonged shutdown would be – particularly, for Ghana’s energy, or power sector.