The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation is set to commence a technical decommissioning of the salt pond oil field, one of the oldest in the country.
The GNPC says the rationale behind the exercise is purely on safety grounds coupled with the fact that the oil field has seen a decline in production levels, producing not more than 200 barrels of oil per day compared to its earlier products of 4,800 barrels a day.
The field is not economically viable hence the decision to shut it down completely, Dr. Kwame Baah Nuakoh, General Manager for Sustainability and Stakeholder Relations said.
“Basically, we spent a lot of time trying to explain to the chiefs the rationale behind the decommissioning exercise and how it will benefit the community– What they should expect and the kind of information they should pass to the community,” General Manager for Sustainability and Stakeholder, Relations Kwame Baah Nuakoh, told Citi News.
“The platform from the shores of Salt Pond is about 13 kilometres and the point is that the rig was producing about 4,800 barrels of oil per day at the highest level, and it produced from two wells even though we drilled six wells.”
“But it got to a stage where production per day dropped from 4,800 barrels per day to 200 barrels per day and this means that the cost of producing the oil, the amount and revenues generated from it was not reaching our target, and so we have to do away with it since it wasn’t making economic sense.”
Dr. Kwame Baah Nuakoh indicated that the corporation has received the necessary permit to undertake the exercise to safeguard both human and aquatic life.
“In 2015 a decision was taken by the country to abandon production from the well because it was no longer economically viable. Then in 2016 we decided to embark on the decommissioning exercise and the main motive was purely on safety grounds since we need to make sure that the interest of the people in which the rig is situated are protected, and we wanted to avoid any spillage,” the General Manager for Sustainability and Stakeholder Relations said.
About the Saltpond Oil Field
The Saltpond Oil Field is the oldest in the country and was discovered in 1970 by the Signal-Amoco Consortium. The field has seen its ownership transcend different companies since production started in 1978.
The last workover operation occurred in 2015, increasing production to 700 barrels per day from the two wells.
After that the field recorded a continues decline in production until December 2015 when oil production was below 200 barrels of oil per day. Production operators ceased because the field was not economic and the field was shut down
