Ghana’s maritime boundary victory to spark oil bounty

ACCRA: Ghana’s ‘ long and arduous journey’ to boost offshore oil exploration and extraction will be fuelled with billions of extra dollars after a key court victory over Ivory Coast.

Thanks to efforts by successive governments and conquering lawyers at the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) over a disputed maritime boundary with Ivory Coast which resulted in a ruling in Ghana’s favour, the money will soon will be pouring in.

Ghana has produced oil commercially since 2010, leading to a burst of growth that transformed it into an emerging economy, piquing the interest of global investors.

But new exploration and production was halted in 2014 when Ivory Coast said drilling off Ghana’s western coast had strayed into its territory. Fruitless talks saw the issue taken to the ITLOS, which in September said Ghana had not, in fact, breached its neighbour’s sovereignty.

In October, President Nana Akufo-Addo said the tribunal ruling opened up “possibilities of development, progress and prosperity”.

Expected oil revenue will likely mean more funding towards roads, schools and hospitals, he said.

Operator Tullow Oil said output from its Twenboa, Enyenra and Ntomme ( TEN) fields was currently about 50,000 barrels per day ( bpd) and will be maintained until the end of the year.

Exploratory drilling will then resume, eventually allowing production to increase towards the 80,000 bpd capacity on its floating production storage facility.

TEN field reserves are estimated at 306 million barrels of oil while the wider Tano Basin, which was the subject of the boundary dispute, holds the equivalent of three to four billion barrels.

At current prices of around 55 per barrel, the TEN field has the potential to generate US$ 16.7 billion in revenue and the Tano Basin US$165 billion, said petroleum economist Theo Acheampong.

“That is really what was at stake in this ruling,” said Acheampong, from analysts IHS Markit.

And with the area already known for being rich in oil and gas resources, he said there was likely even more to be discovered.