Crude oil production in Ghana declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2023, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) said recently.
According to the report titled “2023 annual report on the management and use of petroleum revenues,” a total of 48,247,036.61 barrels of oil were obtained from the three producing fields: Jubilee, Tweneboa Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN), and Sankofa Gye Nyame (SGN), lower than the 2022 figure of 51,756,481.12, or almost seven percent.
Cumulatively, production dropped from a high of 71.44 million barrels in 2019 to 48.25 million barrels in 2023, representing an annual average decline of 9.2 percent.“For the year 2023, a total of 48,247,036.61 barrels were obtained from the three producing fields, lower than the 2022 figure of 51,756,481.12 by about seven percent. The 2023 production figure represents the fourth year of reduction in annual production since 2010,” said the report.
PIAC, the civil society body set up by the country’s Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA), (Act 815) to see to the management and prudent use of petroleum revenue for the benefit of the citizens, attributed the low production to reduced production in all three oil fields.“The relatively lower production volume in 2023 was due to reduced production on all three producing fields,” the report added.
Emerita Prof. Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf, Chairperson for PIAC, explained the drop in production was largely due to a lack of investment in discovering new oil fields and the aging of existing fields.
The civil society body urged the Ghana government and the relevant regulatory bodies to take the appropriate steps to reverse production decline in existing fields and ensure investment in unexploited fields.The West African country received a total of 1,062,323,419.12 United States dollars (USD) as against 1,428,760,076.93 USD in 2022.
Gas production from the three fields, however, surged in 2023 compared to the previous year. A total of 255,171.97 million standard cubic feet (MMSCF) of raw gas—associated gas (AG) and non-associated gas (NAG)—was produced in 2023, compared to the 2022 volume of 253,555.05 MMSCF.
Ghana discovered crude oil in commercial quantities in 2007 and commenced production in December 2010. The cumulative revenue generated so far stands at 9.85 billion U.S. dollars.
Source:https://newsghana.com.gh