NIGERIAN explorer,Oando has been selected by the state-owned Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) as a strategic partner to develop assets and infrastructure to harness gas from the deep-water Jubilee field in the Cape Three Points basin.

Oando saw off some 50 suitors for the job, bidding from around the world, and landed among a shortlist of five.
Oando will be the “lead developer” alongside Italy’s Saipem and a Japanese consortium dubbed Modec-Itochu – all chosen to form a consortium with the GNPC. The project scope includes development of offshore and onshore high pressure gas transmission pipelines, processing facility, liquefied petroleum gas and condensate storage tanks plus other ancillary structures.

“The $1 billion facility is planned to commence operations in the near future,” according to a statement issued by Oando Gas & Power chief executive Bolaji Osunsanya.

The Ghana government intends to develop infrastructure to provide gas-to-power facilities at Effasu and Takoradi in the country’s Western Region, as well as sell natural gas and derivatives to the domestic and international marketplace.

Completion is targeted to coincide with first oil from Jubilee, still officially scheduled for the end of next year, but that date is likely to slip by at least a year. Group chief executive Wale Tinubu said: “The Jubilee oilfield is set to further transform the Ghanaian economy and position the country as a key player in the Gulf of Guinea and allows Oando to extend the success recorded in building Nigeria’s gas distribution pipeline system to other parts of West Africa.”

With potential reserves of 1.8 billion barrels of oil, Tullow Oil’s Jubilee field development constitutes the largest discovery offshore west Africa in a decade.