OCTP: Vitol’s upstream project in Ghana

The Offshore Cape Three Points block, shortened to OCTP, comprises of three oil and gas fields.

It is located, approximately 60 km off the coast of Western Ghana, south of the village of Sanzule. The fields are named Sankofa Main, Sankofa East and Gye-Nyame and contain Cenomanian oil, Campanian age oil and gas bearing sands. The block is managed by the Offshore Cape Three Points Joint Venture; comprised of Eni – Italian Upstream major (44.4%), Vitol (35.5%) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (“GNPC”) (20%).

In 2006, Vitol acquired the licence to explore the area and discovered significant quantities of oil and gas within the fields in 2012. In total, two oil discoveries and three non-associated gas discoveries have been made, leading to the creation of an integrated deep-water project in the area. The gas fields have been developed exclusively for domestic use only, whilst the oil has been developed for export to the international oil market. The Sankofa fields are produced via sub-sea systems on the seabed connected to a floating production, storage and offloading (“FPSO”) vessel.

The vessel is 333 meters in length and 60 meters wide, with a maximum capacity of 1.7 million barrels. Gas is processed and transported via pipeline to onshore receiving facilities near Sanzule where it is compressed and injected into the Western Corridor Gas Pipeline to be distributed to thermal power plants and industrial customers across the country. Oil is stored in the FPSO and offloaded to tankers for sale in the international market.