Tullow Oil has confirmed an investigation into the damaged turret bearing on the FPSO (floating, production, storage and offloading) vessel Kwame Nkurmah on its Jubilee Field in Ghana.
The company had previously announced it was assessing the vessel earlier this year.
It said the turret is no longer able to rotate as originally designed, although oil production and gas exports can continue.
Tullow said it will be carried out under “revised operating” and off-take procedures.
In a statement the firm said a route cause analysis is ongoing and a project team is assessing which long-term remediation process to use.
The FPSO has since been placed on “heading control” through the use of tugs which will minimise vessel movement through the bearing.
Meanwhile new operating procedures – including the use of a dynamically-positions shuttle tanker and a storage tanker – have been implemented to ensure safe production and off-take operations.
Paul McDade, chief operating officer, said:”We are focused on resolving this issue with the bearing on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah in a timely and safe manner. We have appointed a highly experienced project team to work on a permanent solution while our operations team continues to ensure we have in place safe and sustainable arrangements for production from the field.
“Given the ability to continue production and because we have the appropriate insurance policies in place, we do not expect that this issue will have a material impact on our revenue.”
The firm said it expected restart production in two weeks’ time.
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