The President of Ghana, John Atta-Mills, has turned the first valves on a new oil field off the West African coast, operated by exploration company Tullow Oil.
Tullow's partners on the field include Anadarko Petroleum, Kosmos Energy, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Sabre Oil and Gas and EO Group.
The Jubilee Field was discovered by Tullow in 2007 and is estimated to contain between 1.2 billion and 1.8 billion barrels of oil. It will initially deliver 55,000 thousand barrels a day, with production increasing to 120,000 barrels per day, within six months.
Tullow has a 34.7% share in the project and output from Jubilee should almost double the company's daily production in the next twelve months. The first tanker of oil from the Jubilee field is expected to be exported in January 2011.
'History will be made today and I am very proud to be part of it. First oil from the Jubilee field is a wonderful occasion for Ghana, its government and people, the Jubilee partners and Tullow,' commented Tullow's CEO Aidan Heavey.
'It is the culmination of a lot of dedication and hard work from a world-class team on a world-class field,' he added.
Ghana is already a major producer of cocoa and gold. It has produced oil in the past, but only in very small quantities by industry standards. The recent find has set off intense interest from investors, including from China.
There is concern however that the country has not adapted its legislation quickly enough to cope with the windfall. Commercial production comes just three years after the discovery of the oil - and with proposed laws to regulate the industry still under debate in parliament.
