ACCRA, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Ghana and its partners have made 23 discoveries of oil and gas resources since 2007, including the Jubilee discovery, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye said on Tuesday.
In his message to the ongoing three-day Offshore West Africa Conference and Exhibition 2013, Asafu-Adjaye said GNPC expected commercial development and production from the Tweneboa, Enyenyra and Ntomme (TEN) Fields, Sankofa-Gye Nyame Fields, full field development of the Jubilee, North and South Tano and Teak-Akasa Fields over the next five years, subject to the approval of Plans of Development.
While discussions over appraisal plan are ongoing for the seven discoveries by Hess Ghana Exploration Limited, appraisal and development of the TEN and Sankofa-GyeNyame fields are at various stages.
There has been a marked increase in the pace of exploration in the blocks under license as six out of eight exploration wells drilled in 2012 resulted in oil, gas and condensate discoveries, he observed.
"This represents a record number of exploration wells ever drilled in the country in a particular year, with a very high success rate of 75 percent compared to an industry average of 10 percent," he noted.
According to Asafu-Adjaye, the success of Jubilee was what opened up the potential of the Deepwater Tano Basin and led to a string of other (22) discoveries, which galvanized industry interest in Ghana's three other basins.
He said these emerging opportunities in the industry presented enormous opportunities for service companies to set up in the sub- region to support the industry.
"The recent exploration successes in Ghana and other areas along the West African margin give credence to the fact that the next decade holds a lot of promise for the petroleum province of West Africa, including the transform margin," added the CEO.
Jubilee Asset Manager at Tullow, Gilbert Yevi, said since there are great opportunities for Africa to propel its socio-economic growth and development through responsible exploitation of its vast yet untapped oil and gas resources, there is the need for its leaders to create the right business environment and develop local talents and capacities for the industry.
