Accra, May 4, GNA - The Jubilee Partners on May 1, held a naming ceremony in Singapore for the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Vessel that will facilitate oil production in the Jubilee Field, off the coast of Ghana.

A statement from Tullow Ghana Limited, said the vessel named 'Kwame Nkrumah' after Ghana's first President, and bearing the maritime name 'MV21'was christened at the Jurong Shipyard Mrs. Naadu Mills, the First Lady, who led Ghana's delegation to the naming ceremony, performed the symbolic act of breaking the bottle of Champagne to signify the naming of the vessel.

She said the FPSO was being named after Ghana's First President who was born in 1909 to a very humble family on Nzema soil.

"Dr. Nkrumah was committed to the independence of Ghana with no limitation, the accelerated civic, economic and industrial advance of Ghana, and the Continental Union of Africa," she said.

"No one can deny that these three aims of Nkrumah have since been realised.

"The FPSO, critical equipment for the production of oil, is ready and shall set sail for Ghana on schedule. What other evidence do Ghanaians require to prove the commitment, experience and determination of the Ghana Government and its partners to turn Ghana's oil potential into a reality?

"Already, the subsea network of the Jubilee Field is almost ready to receive the FPSO, which is expected to leave Singapore before mid-May for its six-week journey to Ghana."

Mrs. Naadu Mills assured all prospective investors, that Ghana is a safe place to invest their money.

She stressed: "Every investment in Ghana should be considered safe provided it is in compliance with the laws of Ghana. For the Jubilee Project Partners, my assurance is that Government will not do anything to frustrate their investment in Ghana."

Dr. Oteng Adjei, Energy Minister said at a reception after the naming ceremony that the country "have had gold and other mineral resources, we have had cocoa but we did not get much out of all these. But now that we have oil, we dare not fail"!

"Our oil and gas must lead to enriching the quality of the social life of the people of Ghana."

He said the fast-track completion of the FPSO was made possible largely due to the hard work and dedication of MODEC (the primary engineering contractor for the construction of the FPSO). Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and led the country to independence in 1957. His Presidency is seen largely as the period in which the country made the greatest strides in the area of infrastructure development.

Dr. Nkrumah had a focus on developing Ghana's energy potentials. He built the first hydro-electric dam for the country as a means of generating a reliable source of energy for his programme of accelerated industrialisation, as well as developing Ghana's energy resources. There was also a marked intensification of Ghana's search for oil during his tenure.

Dr. Nkrumah hailed from the Western Region, which borders the offshore Jubilee Field. The Jubilee discovery was made in 2007 - exactly 50 years after Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana to independence - hence the name of the field 'Jubilee'.

These and others reasons explain the naming of the FPSO after Kwame Nkrumah.

The naming ceremony signified the readiness of the vessel to set sail for Ghana. It also means that the Jubilee Partners have reached an advanced phase of the efforts at producing oil from the Jubilee Field on schedule - by the fourth quarter of this year.

The Jubilee Field was discovered in 2007 by a partnership comprising Tullow Ghana Limited, Kosmos Energy, Anadarko Petroleum, Sabre Oil, EO Group and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC). The corporate bodies have since worked together to develop and produce the field within a three-and-a-half-year accelerated development programme, which has been acknowledged in the industry as world class. Jubilee is also seen as a project that will set the benchmark for the growth of the modern oil industry in Africa. It has an estimated recoverable reserve of up to one billion barrels, with significant further potential yet to be explored.

The partnership has a shareholding structure as follows: Tullow Oil (34.7 per cent), GNPC (13.75 per cent), Anadarko Petroleum (23.49 per cent), Kosmos (23.49 per cent), Sabre Oil and Gas (2.81 per cent) and EO Group (1.75 per cent).

"The Jubilee Project is setting the example for responsible development and management of national resources to ensure that Ghana's oil generates significant national wealth and pride," said Dai Jones, President and General Manager of Tullow Ghana Limited, before he left for the naming in Singapore.

"The FPSO will set sail for Ghana on schedule this month (May). This is evidence of the commitment, efficiency and determination of the partners to develop Ghana's oil potential," Dai Jones added.

The FPSO is using the biggest turret ever constructed in the oil industry. It has an oil processing capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil per day, a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels, and can produce 160 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. Additionally, it has the capacity to inject more than 230,000 barrels of water within the same period.

The FPSO is 60 metres wide and 330 metres in length, approximately the length of three football fields. Oil industry watchers say it is one of the fastest FPSO conversions ever of its size and complexity. It has 17 modules weighing more than 12,500 tons installed on it. The modules include a water treatment plant, crude separation plant, chemical injection plant, gas processing and injection plant, the turret, electricity generation plant and a 120-room accommodation unit, among other facilities.