Oil firm Aker Energy, a subsidiary of Aker ASA, will revive plans to develop its deepwater Pecan oil discovery off Ghana, which had been put on hold in April due to the fall in oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Aker Energy...reaffirms its commitment to finding a solution that will allow for the commencement of a phased development of the Pecan field,” the company said in a statement.

Instead of producing the field from one central installation, the company is now looking at an option of developing parts of it, starting with an FPSO in the south and later adding a second unit in the north.

The company said the phased development would substantially reduce the project’s breakeven cost and increase the chance of making a final investment decision (FID), which was previously expected in 2020.

“Although we have an altered timeline, we are on our way to finding a development concept with a breakeven price that is sustainable and resilient also in a low oil price environment,” CEO Haavard Garseth said.

However, there was no new date set for making the FID.

Oeyvind Eriksen, the CEO of Oslo-based Aker, told Reuters on May 8 that Pecan’s breakeven cost should fall into the $20s per barrel to restart the project.

In April, Oslo-based energy consultancy Rystad Energy estimated Pecan’s development breakeven cost to be about $42 per barrel.

If developed, Pecan could become the fourth producing field off Ghana.

Aker’s partners in the development are Lukoil, state-owned Ghana National Petroleum Corp. and Fueltrade.

Offshore