Ghana Jubilee oilfield partners buy FPSO vessel: GNPC

ACCRA (Reuters) - Partners in Ghana's Jubilee offshore oilfield, operated by Tullow Oil, have bought a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel from Tokyo-listed Modec, Ghana's state oil company GNPC said on Friday.

Sources close to the deal said it valued the "Kwame Nkrumah" vessel, which was leased to the Jubilee partners for its first year of operation, at $750 million.

The agreement covering the FPSO, which can process 120,000 barrels of oil per day and has storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels, was concluded last month, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation production manager Thomas Manu told Reuters.

"It was a collective decision that we should acquire it after successfully running it for one year - we have paid," Manu said, adding that Tullow executed the purchase agreement on behalf of the partners.

UK energy company Tullow holds a 36.05 percent stake in the field. Other stakeholders include GNPC with 13.75 percent, private investment group Kosmos with 23.49 percent, Anadarko Petroleum Corp with 23.49 percent, and Sabre Oil and Gas with 2.81 percent.

The Jubilee field, with reserve estimates up to 2 billion barrels, came on stream in mid-December 2010 and is currently producing between 70,000 and 80,000 barrels per day.

Manu said each of the partners contributed proportionally to the purchase.

"The contribution to the purchase becomes part of our development cost," he said.

Sources close to Tullow confirmed the transaction, adding that as with all other field-related infrastructure, the FPSO would become the property of Ghana after the cost is recovered.

Jubilee started pumping in December 2010 but a target of 120,000 barrels per day has been delayed in 2011 by technical problems. Tullow said last month it now hoped to reach that level in early 2012.

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