A Ghana-based private company and its local partners have discovered 1.5 billion barrels of oil in place offshore the West African country, the company Springfield E&P said on Wednesday.
Springfield and its partners Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and GNPC EXPLORCO also found 700 billion cubic feet of gas in the West Cape Three Points (WCTP) Block 2 they had recently drilled.
"The current undiscovered potential of the Block is estimated at over 3 billion barrels ofG oil and gas in multiple leads and prospects within various proven reservoir units," Springfield E&P said in a statement.
The company became the first independent Ghanaian oil firm to have drilled a deepwater well and found oil and gas, it added.
"We are excited about the discovery as it ties into our vision of becoming a leading African upstream player with a global focus," said Springfield's chief executive Kevin Okyere.
"As the national oil company of Ghana, GNPC is proud of this feat, chalked in this all-Ghanaian partnership," said GNPC's chief executive Dr. K. K. Sarpong.
According to analysts, the all-Ghanaian partnership would need foreign partners in developing the massive discovery as it would need a lot of investment and deepwater expertise.
In order to boost investments into its oil industry, Ghana plans to give oil companies more choice regarding where to drill for oil and gas. According to Deputy Minister for Petroleum, Mohammed Amin Adam, Ghana looks to change its strategy to attract investments because competition for African oil and gas investments has become fiercer.
Major oil and gas discoveries and subsequent investments in infrastructure projects are set to help the oil and gas industry in Africa to grow, also helped by improved governance and regulation, PwC said in its Africa oil & gas review 2019.
Ghana currently produces around 200,000 barrels per day of oil, including from the Jubilee oilfield operated by Tullow Oil.
Earlier this week, the UK firm flagged poor performance in its African assets, including in Ghana, which led to a massive sell-off that halved Tullow Oil's value.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More