753 million barrels of oil produced since 2010 – Petroleum Commission

About 753 million barrels of oil has been produced since commercial production started, as at end-August 2024.

The country, he pointed out, still has reserves of about 2.2 billion barrels of oil to bring to the surface.

This, he said, is made of approximately 970 million barrels of oil equivalent – yet to be produced from the three producing fields as well as the recently approved Pecan field -and an estimated contingent reserve of 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Egbert Isaac Faibille, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)-Petroleum Commission said: “It needs to be noted that these contingent reserves are estimated hydrocarbon resources discovered, which are subject to appraisal and commercialisation through approved Plans of Development”.

Mr. Faibille was speaking at the 2024 Local Content Conference and Exhibition in Takoradi

The three-day conference, attended by over 1,000 participants in the oil and gas industry across the continent, was on the theme ‘Attracting exploration and production investments to boost local content-new pathways’.

He said further Exploration and Production (E&P) investments are therefore required to monetise these contingent reserves in the immediate future.

“It is against this backdrop, particularly of the 970 mboe and contingent reserves of 1.2 billion barrels of oil , that the Commission has chosen its theme for this year’s Local Content Conference and Exhibition.

“It is imperative to begin discussions on this issue of attracting investments into the sector and local content maximization dispassionately, using the broader energy spectrum,” he said.

The PC-CEO pointed out that since commercial discovery of oil in the Jubilee Field during 2007 the industry has rapidly evolved, attracting major international oil companies and fostering local enterprises.

“Having achieved its first commercial hydrocarbon production from the Jubilee Field in December 2010, barely 40 months after its discovery, Ghana saw a significant uptake in exploration activities leading to over 30 new discoveries offshore Ghana.”

He mentioned that the Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme (TEN) and Sankofa Gye Nyame Fields were brought onstream in August 2016 and May 2017 respectively – raising Ghana’s average daily production from 100,000 bbl/d to a peak of approximately 195,000 bbl/d in 2019.

Recent exploration efforts between 2018 and 2022 saw six discoveries from seven wells drilled. These discoveries are the Pecan South East (Pecan Energies), Nyankom (AGM), Eban (Eni), Akoma (Eni), Afina (Springfield) and Aprokuma (Eni).

“This high success rate is a testament that Ghana’s sedimentary basins remain highly prospective. Of these discoveries, the Pecan Field Plan of Development (PoD) has been approved by the Minister for Energy. It is our expectation that field development will commence soon” he said.