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Ghana's first oil exploration licensing round attracts global giants

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The interest is a major vote of confidence in Ghana, which is keen to unlock more resources after it began pumping from its flagship offshore Jubilee field in 2010.

The companies that have submitted applications are Tullow Oil, Total, ENI, Cairn, Harmony Oil and Gas Corporation, ExxonMobil, CNOOC, Qatar Petroleum, BP, Vitol, Global Petroleum Group, Aker Energy, First E&P, Kosmos, Sasol and Equinor.

The applications include expressions of interest in competitive bidding for three blocks in the Western Basin and for direct negotiations regarding another two blocks offshore Ghana, the energy ministry said in a statement.

“?he high level of interest shown by major International Oil Companies in our first licensing round is a vote of confidence in the Ghanaian economy,” Deputy Minister for energy in charge of petroleum, Mohammed Amin Adam, was quoted as saying.

A total of 60 applications were received, but two were invalidated as they were for a block reserved for Ghana National Petroleum Corporation.

Ghana currently produces 200,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), with the Jubilee field producing about 100,000 bpd.

Some of the interested firms have already started boosting their presence in the country.

ExxonMobil, for example, recently signed a deal with Ghana to explore for oil in the Deepwater Cape Three Point offshore (DWCTP) oilfield.

Aker Energy AS, controlled by Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, agreed in February to buy Hess Corporation’s Ghana unit in a $100 million deal, gaining access to a 50 percent stake in the deepwater Tano Cape Three Points block.

The block holds an estimated 550 million barrels of oil equivalent in contingent resources and potential for a further 400 million barrels.

Ghana wants to be a petroleum hub for West Africa. It has drawn up plans to build four refineries of about 150,000 bpd each in the next 12 years.

Ghana’s only oil refinery, the Tema Oil Refinery, processes about 25,000 bpd of oil, far below its capacity.

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Ghana has started implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) treaty, an initiative that seeks to deregulate the aviation sector of the African continent.

What this means is that all cross-border flights with countries that have also implemented the treaty will now be treated as domestic flights. This measure intends to reduce fares and increase travelers’ convenience, encourage the opening and maintenance of air links between African countries and thus stimulate economic growth through air transport and tourism.

The implementation of the treaty also aims to encourage cross-border investment and innovation which seeks to improve trade and business efficiency. It is expected that Ghana’s participation will improve its positioning as an emergent hub for aviation in the West African sub region as part of its wider aspirations of being the business gateway to West Africa.

Meanwhile, a number of ECOWAS states have played leading roles in opening up their airspace for aviation activities to surge by implementing the policy.

A total of 27 countries made commitments towards the Memorandum of Implementation (MoI) in May this year at a conference held in Lome, Togo. However, only 14 countries have signed the agreement. West African nations including The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana are leading its implementation.

Reports indicate that the AU Commission – the body responsible for the implementation of the treaty – and its executing agency, the African Civil Aviation Commission, were expecting 13 countries to sign the implementation of SAATM, but some have delayed their respective implementations.

The countries that failed to sign are Nigeria Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Gabon, Mozambique among other nations.

According to the AU, the reason given by countries yet to approve the MoI was that such countries were yet to align their domestic laws with the treaty.

The no-show syndrome in implementing the policy by some African states explains why some African countries have failed to harness the benefits of this project since it was conceptualized more than three decades ago.

As a flagship project of the AU Agenda 2063, the delay and noncompliance of the policy by African states has the capacity of derailing the agenda’s realization.

SAATM

The SAATM is an AU flagship initiative aimed at creating a single unified air transport market that seeks to facilitate trade through open air space in the continent.

The initiative was also proposed to liberalize impediments facing aviation sector as well as loosening trade restrictions to ensure socio-economic development and integration agenda.

Ghana

With the quest to deregulate the sector to become an aviation hub in the West African sub-region and beyond, Ghana recently signed aviation related agreements with Seychelles and Namibia to open more air routes which seek to promote investment and bilateral trade opportunities.

These agreements were signed at the recently held International Civil Aviation Organisation in Kenya.