The main bearings aiding the rotation of the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, are damaged, prompting the managers of the facility to tie the vessel to two tug boats to hold it in control, the Petroleum Commission (PC) has said.
The PC, in a statement issued in Accra and made available to the Daily Graphic, said the external turret designed to accommodate flexible risers — electrical pipings which connect sub-sea production to the surface processing facility — had become malfunctioning.
The turret has a moving component (the bearing system) which allows the FPSO to rotate around the stationary turret component which is attached to the mooring system.
That, officials of the commission said, had necessitated the extension of the routine maintenance period, thereby disrupting crude oil production and gas export to the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC).
The FPSO was shut down on March 20, 2016 for a two-week planned routine maintenance but production operation has not resumed due to technical challenges on the turret.
The situation has led to a reduction in the production of power, as thermal plants that are dependent on gas have limited their production due to the unavailability of gas.
Investigations
The PC said a team headed by Tullow Ghana was investigating the cause of the malfunction, after which a decision would be taken on the long-term solution to address the challenge.
The statement said international certification bodies with expertise in technical assessment, advisory and risk management, Det Norske Veritas of Norway and Germanischer Lloyd of Germany (DNV GL), were providing assurance for the work.
It said a two-member team from the commission, led by the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager and the Inspection Engineer, were part of the team monitoring progress of work on the FPSO.
Gas export
The statement said officials had situated a dynamic positioning (DP) tanker on location to offload crude oil from the FPSO to a storage tanker to enable the resumption of production of crude oil on the Jubilee Fields.
An export tanker is said to have come alongside the storage tanker to undertake a ship-to-ship transfer, so that production could start, the Daily Graphic has gathered.
The PC said it appreciated the concerns and the impact the challenges with the FPSO were having on the economy.
“However, as it is with complex systems of this nature, unforeseen challenges may occur and stakeholders are deploying all efforts to ensure that operations resume as soon as possible,” the statement said.
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