Ghana has granted Aker Energy more time to submit the plan of development for its Pecan field.
A statement from Aker cited “uncertainties about supplier commitments triggered by the war in Ukraine”.
It went on to say the government, Aker and its partners had agreed to work together on resolving the problems in order to “facilitate a timely submission of the PDO”.
According to local Asase Radio, Ghana National Petroleum Corp. (GNPC) sent a letter to Aker in June calling for the company to meet this deadline.
The media house reported problems around Lukoil and its stake in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points (DWT/CTP) licence. The Russian company had raised concerns around GNPC’s entry to the licence and the potential threat this posed to executing the Pecan project.
Aker has pushed back the submission of the plan a number of times. Ghana’s state budget for 2022 had set out the expectation that the company would submit the plan by the end of 2021.
Having missed this deadline, Aker then had until June 30 to register.
Aker did submit a development plan in March 2019. This called for a phased development with Pecan as the first step, but potentially covering a number of additional finds. At the time, Aker said it expected to reach first oil 35 months after taking the final investment decision (FID).
The $4.4 billion plan involved an FPSO, up to 26 wells and production of 110,000 barrels per day.
The government rejected Aker’s plan as it sought changes to the regulatory framework.