Italy’s Eni is firming up its early plans for an initial floating production system to produce a deepwater oil discovery off- shore Ghana.

DI understands that the operator is keen to fast-track production from its Sankofa East discovery in the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) block, most likely via a leased FPSO, as part of a phased development of the oil reserves (see previous story in DI, 1 October 2012, page 1).

This would give the state-owned player important production feedback on the quality of the reservoir, before entering into a second phase of development, for which a larger FPSO would be ordered.

This would be in addition to a major deepwater gas development for the original Sankofa find, for which Eni has previously confirmed it is already conducting engineering studies.

The operator confirmed this week that a successful delineation well had put recoverable reserves at around 150 MM bbl, and that as a result it had “immediately” kick-started a commercial development process for the find.

Eni said the Sankofa East 2A appraisal well confirmed the commercial standing of the find and its strategic importance. The overall potential of the discovery and the block is now put at around 450 MM boe of oil in place.

The find in the Tano Basin, around 50 km offshore, was already being studied by the operator for a development of its non-associated gas reserves. Sankofa also lies around 35 km east of Tullow Oil’s large producing Jubilee field.

The Sankofa East 2A well was drilled 8 km south west of the Sankofa East X1 discovery well and confirmed the extension of the oil accumulation in the Cenomanian sequence. The data acquisition confirmed the hydraulic communication in the oil-prone reser- voir between the discovery and the appraisal well, said the operator.

The well, drilled to a total depth of 4,050 m (13,288 ft), was drilled in 990 m (3,248 ft) of water. The probe hit 23 m (75 ft) of gas and condensate gross pay (17 m net), and 76 m (249 ft) of gross oil pay (30° API, 32 m net) in good sands of cretaceous age.

Eni said it had immediately started plans for the commercial exploitation of the oil reserves, in addition to the ongoing engineering studies for the development and commercialization of the gas reserves. The gas is to be developed and produced in accordance with the principles sanctioned in a Memorandum of Understanding signed last year by Eni, Vitol and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) with the Ministry of Energy of Ghana. The MoU focuses particularly on the domestic gas market.

A production test on the field last year flowed 5,000 b/d of high quality oil. Eni first confirmed an oil and gas discovery on Sankofa in 2009.

Eni, through its subsidiary Eni Ghana E&P Limited, is the operator of the OCTP block with a 47.222% share. Its partners are Vitol Upstream Ghana Ltd., (37.778%), and state company GNPC (15%). GNPC has an option for an additional 5% stake.