Oil becomes Ghana's second main export

Crude oil is now Ghana’s second main export, increasing moderately in the past two years from $2.7 billion in 2011 to $3 billion in 2012, according to Standard Chartered Research.

Gold is the country’s highest foreign exchange earner.

In its outlook on Ghana released May 14, 2013, it noted that Ghana became an oil producer in December 2010, with an estimated 85,000 barrels per day being pumped at the country’s main Jubilee field.

“In 2011 and 2012, oil production averaged 90,000 barrels per day, missing production targets due to technical factors stemming from the absence of gas infrastructure (the prohibition on flaring means that gas must be re-injected into the Jubilee field for the time being, leaving Ghana vulnerable to output volatility),” it said, adding that “the discovery of new sites, adjacent to the Jubilee field development, which targets 500 million barrels in estimated oil reserves, should enable the country to increase production to about 250,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent by 2021. Current production is estimated to be around 110,000 barrels per day.”

According to Stanchart Research, although Ghana remained a marginal net importer of oil in 2012 (oil imports totalled $3.3 billion in 2012), the expected increase in domestic oil production should be enough to allow Ghana to become a net exporter of oil by 2014.

“This, together with a still well-diversified export base, should reduce Ghana’s sensitivity to oil prices,” it says.