Ghana’s daily oil production will reach
240,000 barrels by 2020, Mr Michael Aryeetey, Chief Operating Officer of
Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Exploration and Production
Company Limited (Explorco) has said.
He said this would be attained, when the three oil fields would then
be at their apex production; adding: "This is good news for all
stakeholders including the people of Ghana."“However, this trend will
not last if investment into the industry stalls, pace of exploration
reduces, we do not find more oil and gas, and we do not commercialise
our finds,” Mr Aryeetey stated in Accra at the Seventh College of Basic
and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Public Lecture.
He said currently about 50 per cent of the sedimentary basin offshore
was open with very little activity; adding that the Voltaian basin with
a size of about 103,000 square kilometres, and currently undergoing
some level of exploration, led by GNPC.
Mr Aryeetey said the basin would also be available for licensing to
investors in the next two years or so.“Offshore Ghana still host a
number of stranded or captured resources which cannot be commercialised
on their own. It is important that going forward, all stakeholders come
together and find ways through which these resources can be
commercialized either together or in clusters,” he said.
He said: “Ghana’s oil reserves currently stand at 1.27 billion oil
equivalent. This is relatively small compared to Nigeria’s 40 billion
barrels of oil equivalent.“With almost 200 million barrels already
produced, we must all work together to improve our replacement ratio by
finding and developing more resources.”
He said it was the expectation that even though oil prices generally
continue the downward pressure in response to higher supply against
lower demand, when the problem was resolved in the country’s favour,
Ghana would continue to attract serious and well established oil
companies who would work with GNPC and Explorco to ensure that an
aggressive exploration and development activities in the basins were
sustained.
“This is key for us because increased exploration, development and
production activities will lead to increased work load and demand for
local participation and use of local goods and services,” Mr Aryeetey
said.
“Increased industry activities in Ghana also present opportunities
for improving infrastructure and facilitate continuous operations
thereby ensuring that our government revenues are sustained and citizens
remain in jobs to promote economic growth,” he stated.The GNPC was
established by the GNPC Law 1983 (PNDC Law 64), with the primary object
of undertaking the exploration, development, production and disposal of
petroleum.
GNPC started operations in 1985.
The Corporation is an anchor partner in all upstream operations and
currently has stakes in 18 Petroleum Blocks and is the Operator of the
Voltaian Basin.GNPC is also the National Gas Aggregator.
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