The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has expressed concern over the continuous decline in Ghana’s crude oil production, warning that the country’s upstream petroleum sector risks collapse unless urgent steps are taken to reverse the trend.
According to the committee, daily oil output has dropped significantly from over 120,000 barrels to less than 80,000 barrels in recent times—a trend it described as deeply concerning for the country’s economic stability.
Consequently, it has urged the government and industry stakeholders to adopt a comprehensive approach to reverse the decline.
Speaking at a three-day media engagement organised by PIAC at Oyibi in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality of the Greater Accra Region on Saturday, a Technical Director at PIAC, Mark Agyemang, said there was the need for the government to pursue economic diversification, increase investment in the upstream petroleum industry, improve the management of oil revenues, and urgently resolve technical and operational challenges affecting production.
He noted that the country had in recent years introduced a number of reforms aimed at strengthening the sector, including the passage of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act, 2016 (Act 919), which replaced outdated legislation, as well as a shift from direct negotiations to a more transparent and competitive tendering process for the allocation of oil blocks.
Additionally, he said the Ministry of Energy, in collaboration with the Petroleum Commission and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), had actively promoted Ghana’s oil blocks on the global stage.
This, Mr Agyemang said, had been done through participation in international platforms such as the Africa-Houston Energy Summit, the Ghana Oil and Gas Roadshow in the United Kingdom, and the Offshore Technology Conference in the United States.
Despite these efforts, he noted that the country’s major oil fields were entering a natural phase of decline.
“The Jubilee Field, the country’s flagship oil asset, has seen production fall after reaching its peak, while the TEN and Sankofa fields are also beginning to follow a similar downward trajectory,” he said.
Mr Agyemang attributed the situation partly to underinvestment in exploration activities, noting that Ghana had recorded few significant new oil discoveries in recent years.
He added that this, coupled with technical challenges such as equipment malfunctions, maintenance delays, and inadequate infrastructure for processing, transportation, and storage, had further constrained production capacity.
Furthermore, he explained that the global shift toward renewable energy was also impacting investor confidence, as oil companies have become increasingly cautious about committing to long-term fossil fuel projects in emerging markets.
He noted that historically, countries had relied on National Oil Companies (NOCs) to strengthen control over their petroleum resources in line with the broader agenda of resource nationalisation. However, for Ghana, the challenge now is how to balance declining oil output with sustainable economic planning as a means of securing the future of the petroleum sector.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
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