Ghana’s national oil company, GNPC, and its subsidiary Explorco have dismissed claims that they valued wholly‑owned Ghanaian upstream player Springfield E&P’s assets at US$700 million, nor did they advise the government to make any payment on the basis of such a valuation.
A statement issued on Monday clarified that, as part of its commercial mandate, the corporation routinely evaluates assets under various scenarios and assumptions, including price, costs and volumes, and may adopt different perspectives depending on whether it is acting as a buyer or a seller.
“Such a process does not constitute a decision on any particular value at any time,” the company stated.
GNPC and its subsidiary, GNPC Explorco, also rejected claims that they supplied outdated datasets or withheld updated technical information from a U.S.-based consultant, Ryder Scott Company (Sewell), contracted to evaluate Springfield E&P’s assets.
“We did not provide Sewell with any secondary data,” the company emphasised.
According to GNPC, Sewell’s own report clearly states that all data used in its assessment were provided solely by Springfield E&P. GNPC added that Springfield neither informed the corporation nor sought approval before submitting the dataset to Sewell.
It would be recalled that on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition announced in a statement that GNPC and Explorco had begun what it described as “constructive discussions” regarding a possible takeover of Springfield E&P’s Afina-1X well within the WCTP Block 2.
The ministry explained that the move aimed to help reverse the decline in crude oil production, which currently stands at about 150,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd), down from over 200,000 bopd in 2019.
However, the purported takeover plan has heightened concerns among some civil society organisations and social commentators.
The Afina-1X well, originally drilled in 2019, is located at a water depth of 1,030 metres and reaches a total depth of 4,085 metres. The well uncovered a 65-metre-thick light oil reservoir, with 50 metres of net oil pay in high-quality Cenomanian sandstone formations.
An additional 10 metres of gas- and condensate-bearing sands were encountered in Turonian-age formations at the structure’s edge.
Springfield E&P later claimed that the Afina-1X discovery straddles Eni’s Sankofa field, which also lies within the WCTP area. This claim prompted the Ministry of Energy under the previous government to direct both companies to jointly develop the resource for the nation’s maximum benefit.
The directive led to a dispute between the two companies, with Springfield E&P filing a lawsuit against Eni in Ghana, while Eni initiated legal action against Springfield E&P in London.
To restore harmony in the upstream sector and rebuild investor confidence, President John Dramani Mahama, upon assuming office, reversed the directive— a decision later confirmed by the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition in a statement to the media.
Following the reversal, Eni and its OCTP partners signed an MoU during the Africa Oil Week (AOW) in Accra in September 2025 to invest US$1.5 billion in their operations in Ghana.
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