The shipping companies, Mitsui and MOL, and the Marubeni Corporation have entered into a long-term charter business in providing a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) system for the Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme (TEN) oil fields offshore Ghana.
A loan agreement for the project was signed on Friday.
The three have invested in TEN Ghana, a Dutch company established by Japan’s Modec, a general contractor specialising in floating production systems, which will engage in FPSO leasing, operations and maintenance services. In August 2013, a charter agreement was concluded with Tullow Ghana, the operator of TEN oil fields and a subsidiary of Tullow Oil. The charter contract initially runs for 10 years, with options for extension every year thereafter up to 10 additional years.
West Africa has seen numerous significant discoveries of expansive offshore oil fields in recent years, thereby giving rise to expectations of fresh demand for additional FPSO in the region. TEN oil fields are owned by a consortium of five companies including Tullow Ghana as operator, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and Ghana National Petroleum Company.
Construction of the FPSO through conversion of a VLCC (very large crude oil carrier) is planned to be completed and deployed in 2016 for the development of the TEN oil fields at water depths of about 1 500 metres.
