According to Mr. Michael Aryeetey, Chief Operating Officer of GNPC Exploration and Production Company Limited (Explorco), Ghana’s daily oil production will reach

240,000 barrels by 2020.

This, he said, will be achieved when the three oilfields currently in production reach their peak of production. He added that, “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.”

At the moment, about 50 per cent of the sedimentary basin offshore is open with very little activity. However, the Voltaian Basin with a size of about 103,000 square kilometres is currently undergoing some level of exploration, led by Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC). The basin is expected to be available for licensing to oil and gas companies and investors in the next two or so years.

“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, adding that, “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.”