The Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative has disclosed that Ghana’s oil fields are reaching their peak, resulting in a decline in crude oil production.
Dr Steve Manteaw in an interview said, “the last time I checked, we have produced half of Jubilee Fields, a third of TEN, and about a tenth of Sankofa Gye Nyame.”
He cautioned, “So if we don’t add to our reserves, in a matter of 10 to 15 years, we will have no oil industry.”
This announcement follows a PIAC report indicating that Ghana’s crude oil production declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2023.
Experts suggest that drastic measures must be explored to address the issue.
Dr. Manteaw noted that despite the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC)’s efforts to attract investors, no substantial results have materialized.
“Sometimes I feel we are even throwing money down the drain. The investments are not coming for obvious reasons; we had EXXON Mobil exit our oil industry, and their reason was the prices of our blocks and the quantum of finds they made.
“If we had bigger blocks, then they have a better prospect of finding oil in the right quantities that will get them value for money.
“The other reason, which we infer from our last bidding round, has to do with the data quality…we do not have adequate data in the right quality to be able to attract investors,” he said.
Mark Agyemang, Technical Manager of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), revealed that they have been warning about a decline in crude oil production since 2018.
He stated that operational issues, along with regulatory and governance challenges, have caused a significant decline in oil production.
Consequently, the sector has not seen any new petroleum agreements since 2018.
“Jubilee is 12 or 13 years into its production life. It’s projected to have a lifespan of 25 years. Now it’s more like halfway through its production life. So you naturally expect a decline because reservoir pressure is being depleted.
“So they have to kind of adopt artificial measures, either gas injection, water injection, and the like to bring on stream more oil.”
Additionally, the management of the Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme (TEN) Oil Field has admitted operational challenges to PIAC and is working to address them, Mr Agyeman said.
