Gas production at the Sankofa fields is set to begin next week, the CEO of Ghana Gas has said.
This is expected to boost economic activities in the Western Region.
The Sankofa gas project is expected to help reduce Ghana’s oil imports by 12 million barrels per annum, and rake in US$2.3billion of revenues.
It is the country’s first non-associated gas project, with a daily contract quantity of around 170 million standard cubic feet.
This could provide over 50 percent more of what the country currently gets from the Jubilee and TEN Fields.
Close to 90 percent of the economic benefits are expected to be captured directly or indirectly by Ghana through additional revenues or through fuel cost savings, according to the World Bank.
The Sankofa project encompasses development of the Sankofa and Gye Name gas fields located 60km offshore in water depths ranging from 520m to 1,014m in the Tano Basin.
The fields are estimated to hold 1.45trillion cubic feet of gas.
The project is being developed by a joint venture of ENI (44.44%), Vitol (35.56%), and the GNPC (20%).
“It brings in a lot more jobs. So the economic activities in the Western Region has increased both onshore and offshore,” he observed, adding “with more gas, the secondary usage of gas beyond power generation are going to be elevated.”
He said currently, about 95 percent of Ghana’s gas is used for power generation with five percent for non-power activities.