Oil and gas company Tullow Oil has started a multi-year, multi-well drilling campaign offshore Ghana following the beginning of drilling of the first well at the Jubilee field on Monday.

The Maersk Venturer drillship, which has been contracted for four years, is expected to drill four wells in total in 2021, Tullow Oil said on Tuesday.

Maersk Drilling received a conditional letter of award from Tullow Oil in February 2021 for the provision of the drillship Maersk Venturer and additional services for a development drilling campaign at the TEN and Jubilee fields.

These will consist of two Jubilee production wells, one Jubilee water injector well, and one TEN gas injector well.

The 2021 drilling campaign is the first part of Tullow’s 10-year Business Plan presented at Tullow’s Capital Markets Day in November 2020.

Under the plan, Tullow set out to deliver production growth in the medium term and the ability to sustain production over the longer term.

The first phase of investment started in the second quarter of 2021 with the beginning of the multi-well drilling programme in Ghana.

Through a rigorous focus on costs and capital discipline, Tullow believes that these assets have the potential to generate material cash flow over the next decade.

Rahul Dhir, Chief Executive Officer, Tullow Oil plc, commented: “Today is an important milestone in the implementation of our long-term Business Plan.

“Working closely with the Government of Ghana and our joint venture partners in Ghana, I am confident that we will unlock the full potential from the Jubilee and TEN fields through this multi-year, multi-well drilling programme”.

The Maersk Venturer drillship has been working for Tullow offshore Ghana since February 2018.

The drillship in August 2020 received a 60-day extension of a contract from Tullow for operations off Ghana, for redoing the completion of one well under the original contract for the rig.

This extension began in July 2020 and was completed by the end of August.