The Ministry of Energy is seeking investors in the United States of America (USA) for five available oil blocks offshore Ghana.
The blocks are Deep-Water Cape Three Points Block, Offshore Cape Three Points South Block, Shallow Water Cape Three Points Block, Southwest Saltpond Block as well as the Expanded Shallow Water Tano (ESWT) Block.
A team from Ghana led by Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh took part in a strategic roadshow event, which was planned to coincide with the maiden Africa-Houston Energy Summit in Houston, Texas, USA.
The delegation included officials from the Petroleum Commission, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), GOIL and Base Energy.
Energy Minister Dr. Prempeh said Ghana has four Sedimentary basins of significance to oil and gas namely; Western, Central, Eastern and the Voltaian.
According to him, the Western basin has Ghana’s three actively producing deepwater oil and gas fields while the Voltaian basin is onshore and the remaining two are largely offshore.
Most parts of the offshore basins, he indicated, are open for Exploration & production (E&P) activities.
“GNPC is currently exploring the Voltaian Basin to establish its prospectivity, following which the basin will be open to investors,” he said.
The Minister told investors that the Jubilee Field became Ghana’s first commercial deepwater discovery which further deepened the interest for deepwater exploration in Ghana.
“Having fast-tracked the development of the Jubilee Field, first commercial oil production commenced in December 2010, barely 40 months from discovery,” he explained.
He added that “two new fields (Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) Field and Sankofa – Gye Nyame Field) have since been brought onstream for production in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
The three producing fields currently provide an average daily production of about 150,000 barrel of oil per day from a peak production rate approximately 200,000 barrel of oil per day.”
Dr. Prempeh stressed that Ghana’s stable political and business climate, its highly prospective sedimentary basin with commensurate high exploration success rate, its guaranteed and attractive fiscal terms and the well-defined legal and regulatory framework.
He highlighted the availability of an existing architecture to support infrastructure-led exploration, which shortens the time between exploration and production.
Accordingly, Dr. Prempeh urged investors to find in Ghana a friend and partner.