Ghana’s Petroleum Commission says it has resolved all disputes with upstream oil operators active in the country. The agency also reports two separate investment commitments totaling $3.5 billion, earmarked for the Jubilee and TEN fields as well as the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) block. Several producing countries are currently working to secure new upstream financial commitments, following Brazil, which recently discovered oil traces off the Amazon coast, or China, which unveiled its five-year oil-gas plan for 2026-2030. Victoria Emeafa Hardcastle, acting chief executive officer of the Petroleum Commission, made the announcement on August 21, 2026 in Accra, at the launch of the agency’s 2025 Annual Investment Report.
License extension for Jubilee and TEN
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between the Ghanaian state and the partners of the offshore Jubilee and TEN fields, operated by British group Tullow Oil. The text provides for the extension of the relevant exploration and production licenses to a common deadline, pushed back several years compared with the originally scheduled expiration dates. The protocol was ratified by Ghana’s Parliament, following a debate in which minority voices expressed reservations about securing these extensions years ahead of their normal expiry. Kosmos Energy and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) are among the partners in these two fields.
The protocol also includes an additional drilling programme and an announced reduction in the gas price, though the Petroleum Commission did not specify the scale of this cut. Energy and Green Transition Minister John Abdulai Jinapor, in office since January 2025, oversees the matter within a ministry whose name was changed that same year.
A commerciality declaration for the Eban-Akoma discovery
The second part of the announcement concerns the OCTP block, operated by the Ghanaian subsidiary of Italian group Eni. A consortium comprising Eni Ghana Exploration & Production, Swiss trader Vitol Upstream Tano and GNPC submitted a commerciality declaration for the Eban-Akoma discovery, which combines oil and gas resources. GNPC is involved in this operation through its subsidiary GNPC Exploration & Production Company Ltd (Explorco), which also signed the license extension protocol for Jubilee and TEN.
The commerciality declaration paves the way for drawing up a development plan for the field, a step required before any final investment decision. Neither the reserve volumes nor the exact split of the $3.5 billion between the two sets of projects, Jubilee/TEN and OCTP, were disclosed by the Petroleum Commission.
Production declining since the 2019 peak
Ghana’s upstream oil sector shows a production decline that the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), the statutory body overseeing petroleum revenue management, describes as structural and persistent since the peak reached in 2019. Authorities nonetheless point to a recent uptick in production, without detailing its composition by field or its precise causes.
The resolution of disputes with operators and the conclusion of these two investment commitments come as several producing countries adjust their regulatory frameworks to attract upstream capital. Ghana has not disclosed a precise timeline for implementing the investments announced under these two agreements.
Source: energynews.pro