Ghana’s Crude Oil Output Falls Steeper… Declined From 71.44 Million Barrels To 48.25 Million In 2023

Ghana’s crude oil production from the three oil-producing fields namely Jubilee, Sankofa Gye Nyame and Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme fell steeper from a high of 71.44 million barrels in 2019 to 48.25 million barrels in 2023.

This represents an annual average decline of 9.2 per cent, a report by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), an independent body that provides oversight responsibility of Ghana’s oil revenue, has revealed.

The report which was launched in Accra, the capital of Ghana, on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, highlighted the happenings in the upstream petroleum sector.

The report said of the 48 million barrels, 63 per cent came from the Jubilee Fields, 23 per cent from SGN and 14 per cent from TEN.

“For the year 2023, a total of 48,247,036.61 barrels (bbls) was produced from the three producing fields; Jubilee – 30,444,217 bbls (63%); TEN – 6,716,278 bbls (14%) and SGN 11,086,541.61 bbls (23%).”

For raw gas, a total of 255,171.97MMSCF was produced in 2023 from the SGN Field (127,203.02 MMSCF, 50%), Jubilee (77,900.05 MMSCF, 30%) and TEN Fields (50,068.90 MMSCF, 20%).

It was also discovered that the total proceeds from the Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited (JOHL) liftings received in 2023, amounting to US$70,456,718.93, were not paid into the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF) for the second consecutive year.

This brings the cumulative proceeds of unpaid revenue into the PHF by JOHL to US$343,108,927.88 as of the end of 2023.

The average achieved price by the Ghana Group for all three producing fields during the period under review was US$78.067/bbl.

On the back of this, the committee recommended that the government and the relevant regulatory bodies should take the appropriate steps to reverse production decline in existing fields and ensure investments in unexploited fields.

The 2023 Annual Report is in fulfillment of PIAC’s obligation under the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815), as amended by Act 893, to publish Semi-Annual and Annual Reports

Due to dwindling oil reserves in the Jubilee Oil Field, the partners have committed to raising US$704 million to decommission the field by 2036, which is about twelve years away, by signing an agreement with all the partners involved in the operation of the field.

The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Energy in March 2024.

The Jubilee partners– Tullow Ghana Limited, Kosmos and GNPC–have consented to create a Trust Fund where monies could be lodged by the partners based on the Petroleum Agreement covering the field and used for the decommissioning of the field.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com