Ghana’s crude oil production has increased from about 90,000 barrels per day to 126,000 barrels per day, the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, Dr John Abdulai Jinapor, has disclosed.
He said the increase marked a significant reversal of the consistent decline in petroleum production recorded since the sector’s peak in 2019.
“It got to a level where production was about 90,000 barrels a day, and that was very worrying because there is a threshold and beyond that threshold, it doesn’t even make sense to produce.
“Today, following some tough decisions we took, I’m happy to announce that we’ve moved from 90,000 to 126,000 barrels a day, and that’s quite encouraging,” he said.
Dr Jinapor was speaking at the launch of the 15th anniversary celebrations of the Petroleum Commission (PC) in Accra yesterday.
He said the government had reached major framework agreements with key industry partners as part of efforts to sustain investment and increase production.
He said while a $2 billion framework agreement had been signed with the Jubilee partners, another $1.5 billion framework agreement had been signed with the Sankofa partners, with the country likely to sign five new petroleum agreements by the end of the year.
According to the Minister, following renewed investor confidence in the upstream sector, the government was undertaking a comprehensive review of the country’s upstream petroleum policy, legislative and regulatory framework to make Ghana more competitive in attracting major international oil companies.
He stressed, however, that the review would be guided by Ghana’s national circumstances and the need to secure a fair return to the State while strengthening local participation and capability.
“Our next phase must be to move Ghana from participation to capability, from capability to ownership, and from contracting to the creation of globally competitive Ghanaian enterprises,” he said.
Dr Jinapor commended the Petroleum Commission for its role over the past 15 years in strengthening regulation, monitoring petroleum operations, managing petroleum data, overseeing field development and production, and promoting regulatory compliance.
He assured the Commission of the Ministry’s commitment to providing it with the needed support to effectively deliver on its mandate.
The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Commission, Ms Emeafa Hardcastle, disclosed that over the past 15 years, the Commission had supervised the award of US$4.9 billion worth of contracts to indigenous Ghanaian companies, representing 22 per cent of total contracts.
She said another US$7.9 billion worth of contracts had gone to joint venture companies involving Ghanaian firms, representing 35 per cent of total contracts.
The CEO assured that going forward, the Commission would continue to pursue its vision of becoming a world-class regulator to position Ghana as an upstream petroleum hub. END
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
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