GHANA – Springfield Group, an independent African Oil company has made an historic deep-water oil discovery offshore Ghana.
The discovery is historic to both Ghana and Africa because not only does it mark the first deep water oil discovery made by an African oil company, but it could also be a bigger find than Ghana’s Jubilee Field, which remains the biggest oilfield in the country.
While figures are still temporary and several additional assessments need to be conducted, the discovery is the result of the drilling of two wells over the past 40 days, which both struck oil.
As much as 1.2 billion barrels of oil could be held within the deposit, with up to 35% recoverable according to Springfield. Equally important is the company’s discovery of commercially viable quantities of gas.
While commenting on the recent oil discovery in Ghana, Nj Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber said, “Springfield and its CEO Kevin Okyere represent the African spirit of defying insurmountable odds and sticking to it when everyone counts you out.
Mr. Ayuk also noted that the discovery “speaks volumes to the value that local content development can create when African companies and entrepreneurs are given an opportunity to contribute to their industry.
In only a decade, Ghana has gone from not producing oil to becoming sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth-biggest oil producer, with current production averaging about 195,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd).
Since the discovery of the Jubilee oilfield by Kosmos Energy in 2007, Ghana has managed to bring three offshore projects on stream, resolve its maritime border dispute with Cote d’Ivoire and position itself as a key hydrocarbon province in the Gulf of Guinea.
Oil is now being produced from Kosmos Energy’s Jubilee field, Tullow Oil’s Twenneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme fields and ENI’s Offshore Cape Three Points Integrated oil and gas development project.
Production is expected to reach 250,000 bopd next year, and most optimistic expectations put output at half a million barrels a day by 2025.
The country has also been spearheading transformations within the continent’s energy sector, providing the right market-driven policies and environment for African companies to acquire world-class assets from international counterparts.
The Springfield’s acquisition of Kosmos Energy block and the Chrome Resources and Rockefield’s acquisition of the West Keta block operatorship from Hess Corp after its exit in 2014 are good examples of such acquisitions from foreign companies.
