As oil exploration gathers momentum… President Koroma tours oil rig
President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma has concluded a guided tour of the Anadarko oil rig, the Discovery Spirit Sierra Leone on Monday 26th March.
The President was accompanied by the British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Ian Hughes, the Minister of Information and Communications, Alhaji IB Kargbo, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Frank Kargbo Esq., the Acting Director General Petroleum Directorate, Raymond Kargbo, the State House Press and several other government officials.
Transocean Offshore International Ltd. Ghana, which acts as subcontractor for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation in oil exploration offshore Sierra Leone, is the largest offshore drilling contractor in the world. It provides the most multipurpose fleet of mobile offshore drilling components to help clients discover and develop oil and natural gas reserves.
It would be recalled that Anadarko quite recently confirmed the discovery of approximately 98 net feet (30 Metres) of Hydrocarbon pay in upper cretaceous-age reservoirs in their Jupiter-1 Well offshore Sierra Leone. The company is now drilling the Mercury-2 Well, eight miles away from Jupiter-1, which turned out to be successful.
These developments in the oil sector had prompted President Koroma to pay a four hours long visit to the site where he was introduced to staff of Anadarko and subcontractors, among them seventeen Sierra Leoneans.
President Koroma expressed satisfaction and said he was very much impressed with the facilities onboard the oil rig, and the fact that Anadarko had begun the drilling of the second Well, Mercury-2, and wished the company success in its project.
Led by the Installations Manager, President Ernest Bai Koroma toured the control room, visited the rig/drilling floor (where he demonstrated on the drillers counsel), the Geoservices and the logging unit. This opportunity gave the President a clear picture of the operations of Anadarko in helping Sierra Leone unlock its oil and gas reserves.
According to Transocean’s Sector Manager, Adrian Brown, the significance of monitoring the formation pressure or real time measurement of certain parameters of the drilling process, was to enhance safety and efficiency. He noted that the drilling monitoring logs are therefore necessary for measuring the amount of gas in the system, saying “if we have more gas then we will have more pressure”.
He also revealed that they were drilling 3,000 meters below the sea bed, and maintained that although all of this activity was being monitored through satellite systems, they still need people on site in order to make real time decisions. Hence the significance for a logging unit.
A demonstration of breaking up and joining pipes to form a stand (drill pipe) was also done by the Installations Manager. Each pipe is 42 feet long and four of these are joined to form a stand of 168 feet long.
The cutting of the welcome cake by President Koroma climaxed the well guided tour of the Anadarko Oil Rig, the Discovery Spirit Sierra Leone.
By Jarrah Kawusu-Konte
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