Oil production not to exceed 120,000 barrels/day

Oil production off the Ghanaian coast, which is set to begin next Wednesday, would start with a daily production of only 5,000 and 8,000 barrels and could reach 120,000 barrels a day by next April, the Minister for Energy Joseph Obteng Adjei told Xinhua in an exclusive interview here on Sunday.

"The 120,000 barrels is the peak and we will stay there for about three years and descend" due to technical impediments including the lack of infrastructure, the minister said.

However, Adjei said production would be increased gradually with additional wells entering into production in the next few years.

Contrary to the high expectation of many Ghanaians, annual oil revenue was officially put at 550 million U.S. dollars, which represents only 1.9 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or 6 percent of the estimated annual revenue in 2011.

The oil revenue could be increased three years after with the inauguration of the phase two of the Jubilee Oil Field. Adjei disclosed that his ministry has been working to use the gas and other natural resources to create a very viable aluminum industry, which could provide tens of thousands of jobs.

On the development of infrastructure, the minister emphasized the need to expand infrastructural development if the country were to create another economic growth pole with the emerging oil industry.

"We have to open the roads so that people who would want to go to that part (the western oil industrial area) to work can easily go there, we have to make sure electricity is available for the subsequent companies that would operate there, we have to ensure that there is enough water, rail and other infrastructure," he said.