MORE PROSPECTS FOR OIL EXISTS (PAGE 55, AUGUST 4, 2010)

THE country has more prospects in oil and gas production and its exploration will tremendously enhance the country’s position in the commity of oil producing nations.
At a stakeholders forum in Takoradi, Mr Michael M. A. Aryeetey of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) said prospects existed for inland oil production in the coastal areas and in the shelf-regions of the country.
The deep water areas constitute about 27,000km2 out of which 18,000 km2 has been licensed, while on the shelf-region, the size covers a total area of about 23,000 km2 with only 6,650 licensed.
Mr Aryeetey said a total size of 107,100km2 of coastal and inland areas were yet to be licensed.
He said with more discoveries such as Tweneboa, Owor, Sankofa, Odum and the Dzata wells, the country’s oil production output would witness a significant surge.
He stated that if the companies appraised and commenced production as it was in the case of the Jubilee partners, the story would be different.
The jubilee project, he said at the moment, was at installation, hook-up and inauguration stage, while more than 70 per cent of equipment needed to be installed at the seabed had been completed.
He said it was expected that the phase 1 of the project would produce 120,000 barrels of oil and by 2014, production was expected to double to 240,000 and 240,000 standard cubic meters of gas daily after the completion of the phase II.
The GNPC, he said, had faced many challenges which included lack of proper data which had limited many companies to explore the oil potentials of the country.
Mr Aryeetey pointed out that the new challenges of GNPC was lack of infrastructure , experienced and skilled professionals and pointed out that there was the need for capacity building for key organisations such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Energy, as well as GNPC.
He said there was also the need for the re-capitalisation of GNPC and addressing the issues of local content, as well as the passing of appropriate legislation and policies to support local operations in the country.
Other important areas he said were environmental, health and safety issues ,youth and community education, as well as management of offshore interference.
He also used the opportunity to urge Ghanaians to rise to the occasion to explore the potential.
The function was attended by Members of the Council of State, industry players and chiefs from various parts of the Western Region.
They expressed the hope that local content would ensure that the locals benefited from the oil find.