Work on the onshore gas reception facility for the ENI integrated Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) project at Sanzule in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region has commenced after the President; John Dramani Mahama cut the sod for its take off.
The facility, which has capacity of producing 180 million standard cubic feet per day (mscf/d), sufficient to generate about 1,000 megawatts of power, comes with additional oil production of about 45,000 barrels per day.
The project is an investment of about US$7.9 billion, the single largest investment ever made in Ghana since independence, would ensure reliability of power generation to feed industry and commerce.
The offshore will constitute the construction of FPSO and mooring, subsea installation, extension of flow lines to the shore which are all currently being worked on locally and in Singapore.
Petroleum Pivot
The President pledged his commitment to ensuring that the country transformed into West Africa’s Petroleum hub for the benefit of the country and the sub-region.
The project, he said, represented true transformational investment, which would no doubt have a positive impact on the economy of the country especially the host and adjoining communities.
For his part, the Managing Director of the lead operators, ENI Ghana, Mr Fabio Cavanna, assured that country that ENI was ready to cooperate to provide any necessary technical support to ensure before infrastructure projects were implemented for the benefit of the country and the entire partnership.
He said ENI and its partners were also fully committed to ensuring that the OCTP project was completed on schedule, budget and safely, in spite of the current challenging oil market.
Local content
On ensuring that the company met the local content law, he said they had earmarked $300 million spend on procurement from local firms, in addition to the US$1.5 billion it had so far spent on local content.
The company also plans to train Ghanaians with high end skills to fit in the industry. “We at Eni Ghana have developed a long-term recruitment and training plan dedicated to local resources. Large selection sessions have been held in 2014 and 2015 in collaboration with the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,” he said.
It is estimated that the OCTP Project will generate about 2500 indirect jobs for Ghanaians through contractors and sub-contractors” he assured.
The project
Eni Ghana farmed into a Petroleum Agreement in 2009 as a lead operator in a Joint Venture Partners with 44.444 per cent interest.
Other partners are Vitol Upstream Ghana and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation with 35.556 per cent and 20 per respectively.
ENI and its partners are hoping to pour the first oil in August 2017 and first gas export in February 2018.
ENI, AGIP & Ghana
ENI’s roots in Africa started in the early 1950s as the leading international oil and gas company in the upstream sectors spread over 16 African countries.
Since inception, ENI has maintained its principles devised by its founder Enrico Mattei, now known as “the Dual Flagship Model” by which ENI fosters cooperation with the host country to share resources, develop domestic economy, promote access to energy and improve health and education of the people.
In 1970, ENI constructed the Refinery of Tema, now renamed the “Tema Oil Refinery” in 1991.
In 1974, the company was totally acquired by the government and it is now one of the main players in Ghana for fuels and retail.
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