Ghana’s crude oil production:Ghana oil reserves will be depleted in 15 years if the current rate of production decline continues

• Is Ghana’s crude oil production to be depleted in 15 years to come?

• What is the current production rate of Ghana’s crude oil ?

The Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative has revealed that Ghana’s oil fields are reaching their peak, causing a decline in crude oil production.

Dr. Steve Manteaw informed Evans Mensah, host of Joy News’ PM Express, on Wednesday that “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 warned, “So if we don’t add to our reserves, in a matter of 10 to 15 years, we will have no oil industry.”

This statement comes after a PIAC report showed that crude oil production in Ghana fell for the fourth year in a row in 2023.

Experts say urgent measures are needed to address the issue.

Dr. Manteaw said despite the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC)’s efforts to attract investors, nothing significant has happened.

“Sometimes I feel we are even wasting money. The investments are not coming for obvious reasons; EXXON Mobil left our oil industry because of the prices of our blocks and the amount of oil they found.

“If we had bigger blocks, they would have a better chance of finding oil in the right quantities to make it worth their investment.”

“Another reason, which we inferred from our last bidding round, is the quality of our data…we do not have good enough data to attract investors,” he said.

Mark Agyemang, Technical Manager of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), revealed that they have been warning about the decline in crude oil production 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.

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“They have to use artificial methods, like gas injection or water injection, to produce more oil.”

Additionally, the management of the Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme (TEN) Oil Field has admitted operational challenges to PIAC and is working to fix them, Mr. Agyemang said.

PIAC 2023 Report

Shedding light on the upstream petroleum sector, the report indicated that crude oil production dropped “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%.

Of the 48 million barrels, 63% came from the Jubilee Fields, 23% from SGN, and 14% 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 255,171.97 MMSCF 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%). The average price achieved by the Ghana Group for all three (3) producing fields during the period under review was US$78.067/bbl.

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In light of this, the committee recommended that the government and relevant regulatory bodies should take steps to reverse the production decline in existing fields and ensure investments in untapped fields.

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

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