Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
From
William Yaw Owusu, Somanya
Thursday, December 5, 2013
It has emerged that the North Sea Pioneer, one of
the drill ship acquired by the Tsatsu Tsikata-led Ghana National Petroleum
Corporation (GNPC) never worked for the corporation.
“It could not function as planned; it rather made
the corporation to incur debt. It was towed from the United Kingdom to Angola
where it was supposed to drill oil and later towed back to Ghana.”
According to a qualified Marine Engineer, M.K.
Tawiah currently residing in Somanya in the Eastern Region and who has
extensive knowledge of the rig, the North Sea Pioneer was decommissioned before
the GNPC acquired it.
“It was originally a drilling rig which was
semi-submersible and it was converted into a production platform. It is similar
to the Osagyefo Barge,” he told Daily Guide exclusively.
“The situation with the North Sea Pioneer was
similar to the Discoverer 511 which was a bulk carrier before it was converted
into a drill ship.”
He said that with semi-submersible rigs, its long
cylindrical legs can touch the sea bed and when you want to move it you tow it.
“We should be able to ask the reason why the GNPC at
the time was interested in almost worn out or decommissioned ship.”
“This vessel was built in 1966 so in effect structural
damages might have been done. Why did they have to acquire it? Probably it was
because the GNPC went to acquire concession in Angola.”
According to the experienced Marine Engineer, the corporation
“drill the oil, heat it and so they had to get a production platform to produce
the oil.”
The
Angola Voyage
He said that the North Sea Pioneer was towed from
Aberdeen, Scotland to Angola adding “when they were coming, according to
reliable sources, the Barge Master informed GNPC that they needed more anchor chains
to dock and so he advised them to make the chains ready here at Tema Port so
that as they pass by they could take them on board to be sent to location but
the advise was ignored.”
“My source tells me that somebody who brought a ship
to Tema Shipyard and could not pay, GNPC went and paid and they chartered that
vessel and put the chains on the vessel to Angola.
“They went to a port called Soyo and dumped the chains
there. This was the time the Angolan war was at its peak so the UNITA rebels
led by Jonas Savimbi captured Soyo, drove the Dos Santos-MPLA away and took
control of the area.
“The Ghanaian delegation which was mandated to open
a GNPC office in Angola had to flee the area and came back to Ghana. As a
result, the chains never got to the Barge Master who was waiting for the
anchors.”
The
U-Turn
He said that because the Angolan government wanted
oil money for development they put pressure on the GNPC to operate or forfeit
the concession and after waiting for sometime without hearing from them, the
government contracted another producer who had a tanker “like our FPSO Kwame
Nkrumah” to produce the oil for them.
“These was the reason why the North Sea Pioneer was
there without any production and if they brought it back to Ghana what were
they coming to tell Ghanaians?” he queried.
He said it was when there was a change in government
that the new administration towed it back to the Takoradi Naval Base.
“I was going to Angola for maintenance on the
engines because you cannot leave it in the darkness. I was running the North
Sea Pioneer engines when it was in Angola.
Engineer Tawiah said that the GNPC had a supply
vessel which was given to them by the Canadian company that did the Saltpond exploration
and the vessel used to come and change the crew in Angola and Gabon where the
corporation was operating another rig called Asterie.
“The North Sea Pioneer was a mess. We used to hear
rumours that it will be sent to South Africa for dry docking but it never
happened.
He produced his discharge book commonly used by
Seamen and it indicated that his last engagement with the North Sea Pioneer was
May 29, 2000 with his first being 3/7/1996.
Asterie
According to him, the Asterie, a semi-submersible rig
of the GNPC was managed in Gabon.
“I never worked on the Asterie. If I had been on it
you would notice it in my discharge book like the Discoverer 511 and North Sea
Pioneer book.”
“I want us all to interrogate fully the Asterie,
whether it has been sold and who sold it.”
1 comment:
I was one of the British crew which went to Angola with it, it was stacked in Luanda bay for a while, then we took it out to location near the wells, woke up one morning to see a jack up supposedly being put on the wells, it was ready to work the plant would of worked well then, I know because it was me that made it work:) , I was assured that ther was no H2s in the wells which I later was told was not true. It could not deal with any H2s, shame it never made production again it would have been good to se all my work had been worthwhile. God old rig :)
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