Tullow's renowned Jubilee field has turned Ghana into a black gold hot spot, discussed the "Jubilee Project" panel at the Offshore Technology Conference 2012. Touted as Africa's biggest oil find in the last decade, Jubilee overcame several significant technical and commercial hurdles to commence production in a short amount of time.

Jubilee, situated on two licenses, Deepwater Tano and West Cape Three Points, is considered a very ambitious challenge for the first significant development ever offshore Ghana, the field was developed in three and a half years, with first oil commencing in November 2010.

"Jubilee’s unique circumstances justified a very aggressive appraisal development strategy and dictated an unconventional approach to organizing and managing the project, which ultimately was highly successful," stated Dennis McLaughlin, senior vice president of development of Kosmos Energy.

With the Jubilee field project flowing at a production rate of 55,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) during its first phase of development, the operator is now focusing on further developing the field.

In March 2012, Phase 1A development drilling commenced on the field. The plan calls for eight new wells to be drilled compromising five producers and three water injectors. The first of these wells should come online in late June. This phase and the initial development phase should allow production to ramp up toward the FPSO's design capacity of 120,000 bopd.

Tullow Oil, a partner on the field, expects Jubilee's production to average between 70,000 and 90,000 bpd in 2012, depending on the well performance achieved from the Phase 1 recovery program and the execution schedule of the Phase 1A wells.