Find Oil and Gas expertise in Ghana
- Upstream
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The oil and gas industry in Ghana is a significant source of growth and development. The upstream sector concentrates predominately on exploration, drilling, production and transportation of crude oil. In 2007 the sector was boosted by the discovery of significant oil deposits off the coast of south-western Ghana, the Jubilee Field. This alone was expected to contribute $1 billion USD per year to government revenues over the following 20 years. Further exploration off the Ghana coastline has indicated that there are significant additional reserves and it is possible that at least four more large oil and gas fields will come into production by 2017.
The Ghana National Petroleum Corp. (GNPC) is the state-owned corporation responsible for petroleum exploration, development, production and marketing. GNPC has secured around US$550 million of foreign investment and has already drilled 79 separate wells (2012). Tullow Ghana Limited is a subsidiary of UK-based Tullow Oil plc and has two exploration blocks in the offshore Jubilee Field. Kosmos and Anadarko are the other two main parties operating in the field, although several other companies hold licenses for further exploration. Production from the oil field began in December 2010 and there were an estimated 660 million barrels of proven oil reserves and 22.65 billion cubic metres of proven natural gas reserves (2011). Oil had been mined in a small way since the late nineteenth century but Ghana is now a major producer following the discovery of the commercial field; the economy grew by 23% in the first quarter of 2011 when drilling began compared to 9.5% in the last quarter of 2010.
In 2011 the country’s total oil production was 74,270 barrels of oil a day, leaving it with a net export value of 10,270 barrels a day. The Ministry of Energy is the overall organisation responsible for the oil and gas sector. The 1992 Constitution states that before any agreement relating to the exploitations of petroleum resources can have the approval of law the Ghanaian parliament must ratify the agreement. In 2010 the World Bank approved a $38 million Gas and Oil Technical Assistance Credit to help strengthen the institutions supporting the developing oil and gas sector and provide training for government officials and university students.
The downstream sector deals with refining, storage, importation, transportation, distribution and marketing of petroleum products. There is only one refinery in Ghana – the Tema Oil Refinery (2012). It is in the process of being upgraded which will see its capacity tripled. Around 70% of the oil and gas produced will be sold for export. In 2011 Ghana consumed 64,000 barrels of oil per day. Downstream petroleum business operations are mostly indigenous Ghanaian oil marketing companies. Private companies such as Total, Oando, Engen and Goil handle most of the marketing and distribution of oil products.
The Energy Commission has the power to grant licences for the downstream operations of petroleum products and regulates, manages, develops and utilises energy resources. Other regulatory bodies include the National Petroleum Authority which regulates, oversees and monitors the activities of the petroleum downstream industry.