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AFRICAN MINING
SERVICES GHANA
John Kavanagh
No 3 North Airport Road,
Kia, Accra
Tel: (+233) 21 763875
Fax: (+233) 21 763274
www.amsgh.com
enquiries@amsgh.com
Energy
UPSTREAM OIL
AND GAS PROSPECTS
Ghana’s oil and gas prospects are significant. Indeed,
it is believed that Ghana’s oil and gas resources
stretches across the country’s shoreline. The Voltain
Basin, which covers over 40% of the country’s land
mass, is believed to have oil and gas reserves. This
Voltain Basin is yet to be fully explored.
Recent appraisals completed on three of the dis-
coveries in the Jubilee Field, indicate that the field
contains expected recoverable reserves of about
800 million barrels of light crude oil, with an upside
potential of about 3 billion barrels. The Jubilee Field
will be developed in phases with the aim of ensuring that
gas is not flared. During the first phase which is to be
completed by 2010, the daily production would be about
120,000 barrels of oil and about 120 million cubic feet of
gas. The second phase will be carried out between 2010
and 2012 and will lead to a daily production of 250,000
barrels and 250 million cubic feet of gas.
The discoveries have elicited great interest in Gha-
na’s oil and Gas prospects. Currently there are elev-
en PetroleumAgreements operating in the country at
different stages of exploration or development.The
government intends to accelerate the process of ac-
quisition of blocks in the Ghana sedimentary basins
in order to fully and speedily delineate the country’s
oil and gas potential.
DOWNSTREAM DEVELOPMENTS
It is the government’s intention to ensure increased
local refining capacity to meet both domestic demand
and exports. Currently, about 60 percent of domes-
tic demand can be met by the Tema Oil Refinery. To
bring refining capacity to acceptable levels, there is
the need to expand the capacity of TOR and also
improve its operations. About USD$300 million is
needed to be invested in TOR to increase its capac-
ity by about 100,000 barrels per stream day from its
current level of 45,000 BSPD. About USD$683.5 mil-
lion is to be injected into the operations of the Bulk
Oil Storage and Transportation Co Ltd (BOST), in
the medium term period up to 2015, to improve bulk
transportation of petroleum products especially to the
northern parts of the country.
Government intends to encourage the Oil Market-
ing Companies (OMCs) to increase the number of
service stations to ensure improved access to petro-
leum products in the country. The current administra-
tion of Premix fuel is being reviewed.
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
ESTABLISHMENT OF
PETROLEUM REGULATORY
AUTHORITY
The draft Bill to regulate the upstream petroleum in-
dustry is being reviewed with the view to reducing re-
dundancies and further giving effect to the intention
to consolidate the activities of the numerous regula-
tory agencies existing in the energy sector. It is be-
lieved that a smaller number of regulatory agencies
is needed to manage the sector in order to ensure
efficient and coordinated operation and enforcement
of regulations.
INVESTMENTS IN
THE ENERGY SECTOR
It is estimated that, about USD$9.0 Billion is re-
quired in the next five years to finance the numerous
initiatives in the energy sector, including oil and gas
activities which alone require over USD$5.5 Billion.
While Government will continue to inject funding into
the sector, when available, a major policy shift is to
encourage the energy sector institutions to raise a
substantial portion of their capital investment require-
ments on their own without recourse to Government.
Government has therefore requested the sector agen-
cies, particularly VRA, Ghana Grid Company (GRID-
CO), Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Tema
Oil Refinery, to raise financing from commercial loans
and other private sector financing arrangements and
also via the Ghana Stock Exchange.
In addition, GNPC is required to raise USD$161 mil-
lion as its share in the financing of the development of
the Jubilee Field.
MAIN ENTITIES