2014-built drillship embarks on Eni’s hydrocarbon search in African waters

Eni Ghana, a subsidiary of Italy’s energy giant Eni, has kicked off drilling activities off the coast of Ghana with a seventh-generation drillship, which previously worked for the Italian player in Côte d’Ivoire, Africa.

The Deep Value Driller (DVD) drillship, for which Saipem inked a bareboat charter agreement with Deep Value Driller, is in charge of the drilling operations that will be conducted around 60 nautical miles off Ghana’s coast, near the FPSO John Agyekum Kufour, as part of the broader Sankofa field’s development plan.

Eni Ghana, together with its Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) partners, Vitol Upstream Ghana (Vitol) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), sees the start of drilling operations at the Sankofa East 1X Side Track 2 as “a significant milestone in the further development of Ghana’s upstream energy sector.”

Following the completion of its assignment at the Baleine oil and gas field in Côte d’Ivoire, the Deep Value Driller mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU), equipped with advanced automated technology, moved to Ghana and began activities that are said to reflect the partners’ ongoing commitment to unlocking additional value from the OCTP block.

This is anticipated to help ensure long-term production sustainability and contribute to Ghana’s energy security. Eni (44.4%) is the operator of the OCTP project, in partnership with Vitol (35.6%) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (20%). The joint venture’s portfolio of projects also includes initiatives in the areas of training, economic diversification, access to water and sanitation, and access to energy.

Ahead of the drilling campaign, Eni and its OCTP partners undertook comprehensive stakeholder engagement programs involving over 800 fishermen and local leaders along Ghana’s coastline to ensure open communication and promote collaboration with communities.

The activity was conducted in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Petroleum Commission (PC), Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), Ghana Navy, Fisheries Commission, and the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council (GNCFC). 

Eni’s equity production in the African country is about 34,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Encapsulating not only oil but also gas fields, the OCTP oil and non-associated gas (NAG) project consists of non-associated gas fields Sankofa and Gye Nyame, alongside the Sankofa East oil field.

The Italian giant has many projects in Africa, including its Congo LNG project, where the second phase is being developed with another floating LNG (FLNG) unit, which is slated to come online at the end of 2025. 

Eni is also actively boosting its global portfolio, as illustrated by the start-up of a subsea tie-back to its floating production unit (FPU) in Indonesia’s Kutei Basin.