Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Review petroleum and exploration laws

Ghana’s petroleum and exploration laws and regulations must be reviewed to reflect the happenings of the industry and to aid development of the economy, Mr. John-Peter Amewu, Regional Extractive Industry Knowledge Hub, GIMPA, has stated.

“The country’s petroleum and exploration laws have outlived their usefulness and there is a need to go back and review the laws.

 “We have some regulations -- specifically the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation laws of 1984 (PNDC Law 84) -- which have been in existence for over 25 years now.

“This needs to be reviewed to reflect the happenings of the industry,” Mr. Amewu told oil and gas journalists at a training programme in Accra. It was organised by Revenue Watch Institute in collaboration with Penplusbyte

Making a presentation, he said: “Ghana’s petroleum policy is an integral part of the National Energy Policy, and the main goal of that policy is to sustain and optimise the exploitation and utilisation of Ghana’s oil and gas endowment for the overall benefit and welfare of all Ghanaians, present and future.”

He explained that the historical evolution of the petroleum industry in Ghana can be classified into five distinct phases.

This classification is due to various degrees of factors, among which science and technological advancement and political interventions feature prominently in enhancing the probability of discoveries during the periods.

“Ghana has a legalframeworks for managing the petroleum sector. It is a strategy for ensuring an orderly and efficient development of the sector,” he said.

The country is yet to pass its new petroleum bill, creating some uncertainty about new fiscal terms for oil operations.

The country is likely to seek an increase in its share of revenues from crude-oil production. Already, government has announced its intention to include a clause in the new regulation compelling oil producers to set aside a portion of their production for local consumption.

Ghana’s Jubilee oil field has hit 83,000 barrels per day (bpd) as at last month, following success with an acid stimulation exercise conducted by field operator Tullow Oil and partners, an ECOBANK Research report has stated.

US Kosmos Energy, one of the Jubilee Field partners, recently announced that production is now at 83,000 bpd due to the success achieved with an acid stimulation programme on one of the wells.

The Jubilee Field may finally be on the path to reaching earlier production targets of 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) following an increase in production in August.

Since the start of 2012, Jubilee production has settled around 70,000 bpd; Kosmos reported an average production rate of 63,100 bpd in Q1 while Tullow reported 67,000 bpd in May.

However, average production in August is likely to be above 80,000 bpd. The partners plan to conduct acid stimulation on other wells; two new production wells are also expected to come on-stream before the end of 2012, which will boost production beyond 90,000 bpd.

The report by ECOBANK Research stated: “Success at the Jubilee Field supports our optimistic outlook on Ghana’s crude oil potential. On base estimates, the Jubilee Field is believed to hold about 800 million barrels, which at a peak production of 120,000 bpd would guarantee Ghana at least 18 years of production and revenue from export sales.”

“The potential is greater if the country is able to further de-risk Jubilee Field reserve estimates of 1.5 billion barrels.  Tullow has also estimated that the upcoming Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) fields hold an average recoverable reserves potential of 360 million barrels of crude oil.

“This boost to production will cost the Jubilee partners at least US$1.1billion at completion, as the remediation programme includes the drilling of eight new production wells which could take another 14 months to complete.

Furthermore, the acid stimulation exercises conducted on some of the wells were at an estimated cost of US$30million -- Kosmos Energy reported its share of the costs to be US$10million.

“Success at the Jubilee Field supports our optimistic outlook on Ghana’s crude oil potential,” it said.
At base estimates, the Jubilee Field is believed to hold about 800 million barrels, which at peak production of 120,000 barrels per day will guarantee Ghana at least 18 years of production and revenue from export sales.

This could easily be more if the country is able to further de-risk Jubilee Field reserve estimates of 1.5 billion barrels.  Tullow has also estimated that the upcoming Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme fields hold an average recoverable potential of 360 million barrels.

The country’s offshore oil exploration area is firmly situated in the West African Transform Margin in the Gulf of Guinea, which the United States Geological Survey (USGS) believes hold an estimated 33 billion barrels of crude oil.

This is continually being affirmed by discoveries offshore Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ghana’s oil reserve potential is largely still under-explored and could compete favourably with Nigeria’s offshore potential.

This notion has already attracted considerable investor interest, more recently from South Africa’s National Oil Company, PetroSA, which has bid for local Ghanaian firm Sabre Oil & Gas’s stake in the Jubilee Field.

Jubilee production should peak in 2013 at a rate just above 120,000 bpd. This would lift Ghana above older mid-tier producers such as Chad, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Jubilee Field partners are also fast-tracking plans to develop the Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) field. A plan of development (POD) for TEN will likely be submitted before the end of 2012.

Production could start from those fields by 2015, further boosting Ghana’s production to 150,000 bpd or more. Within a full year of production, crude oil is now Ghana’s third-largest export revenue earner after cocoa beans and products and gold, the highest revenue earner.

In spite of the good tidings, there are some challenges that need to be overcome.
Meanwhile, explorers operating offshore Ghana and in proximity to Cote d’Ivoire could face some loss of acreage in the on-going dispute between the two countries over maritime boundaries.

This situation particularly affects parts of the Jubilee Field where the TEN discoveries were made, along with the Owo and West Tano facilities ahead of plans to access gas from these fields -- generating concerns from operators such as Kosmos Energy and Tullow Oil