A tribunal has rejected a bid by the Ivory Coast to stop oil and gas exploration and development activities in a disputed area between its waters and offshore Ghana.
The ruling paves the way for UK-headquartered Tullow Oil to continue with its TEN Project offshore Ghana. However, a ruling on the boundary dispute between the two countries is not expected until late 2017.
TEN comprises the Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme fields in the Deepwater Tano contract area offshore Ghana. The fields will be developed using a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will be a conversion of the very large crude carrier Contennial J, which is being converted by Sembcorp Marine’s Jurong Shipyard under a contract with Modec Offshore in Singapore.
Tullow says the TEN Project is now more than 55% complete and within budget and on schedule. All 10 of the wells expected to be online at first oil, scheduled for mid-2016, already drilled.
Ghanian government consent for the project was granted in June 2013, based on plateau production via 24 wells in a water depth of 1500m (4920ft).
TEN will sit just 30km (18.75mi) from Tullow Oil’s Jubilee development, another FPSO development, which came onstream in 2010, and became Ghana's first deepwater development.
The ruling was made by the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg.
ITLOS has ordered a number of provisional measures which both Ghana and the Ivory Coast are required to comply with; including continued cooperation until ITLOS gives its decision on the maritime boundary dispute which is expected in late 2017.
Tullow is not a party to this arbitration process and will now await a decision by the Government of Ghana on how it will implement the provisional measures order.
The Jubilee Field is completely unaffected by the arbitration.
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