Energy Minister promotes offshore oil blocks to investors
Energy Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh – together with senior officials of the Petroleum Commission, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and GOIL – is in Houston-Texas, USA, on an oil and gas roadshow.
The delegation also includes officials from Base Energy and is seeking to promote five available oil blocks offshore Ghana.
These are Deep-Water Cape Three Points Block, Offshore Cape Three Points South Block and Shallow Water Cape Three Points Block, the Southwest Saltpond block as well as the Expanded Shallow Water Tano (ESWT) block
At a strategic roadshow event that was planned to coincide with the maiden Africa-Houston Energy Summit, the minister said Ghana has four Sedimentary basins of significance to oil and gas: namely the Western, Central, Eastern and Voltaian.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh said the Western basin has Ghana’s three actively producing deep-water oil and gas fields. Dr. Prempeh added that the Voltaian basin is onshore and the remaining two are largely offshore. Most parts of the offshore basins are open for E&P activities.
“GNPC is currently exploring the Voltaian Basin to establish its prospects, following which the basin will be open to investors,” he said
The minister, who doubles as Member of Parliament for Manhyia South, told investors that the Jubilee Field became Ghana’s first commercial deep-water discovery which further deepened the interest for deep-water exploration in Ghana.
“Having fast-tracked development of the Jubilee Field, first commercial oil production commenced in December 2010 – barely 40 months from discovery,” he added.
“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 bbl/d from a peak production rate of approximately 200,000 bbl/d.”
He further emphasised 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 country’s well-defined legal and regulatory framework.
Opoku Prempeh also highlighted the availability of existing architecture to support infrastructure-led exploration, which shortens the time between exploration and production. He thus urged investors to find in Ghana a friend and partner.
The minister also participated in a roundtable discussion with colleague ministers at the Africa-Houston Energy Summit, and it is expected that he will be heavy on the investment opportunities in Ghana’s upstream petroleum space.