Crude oil production from the Saltpond oil fields off-shore, about 60 miles west of the capital Accra, has been confirmed by the project engineer, Mr Philip Oduro Kwarteng, who said premium crude oil flowing from three of the wells has already been treated.

Kwarteng who was briefing a group of journalists, who spent about 12 hours cruising by boat to and from the oil platform on Thursday, explained that the field had been left idle for the past 15 years. It is the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GMPC), which, after taking over from the Primary Fuel Incorporated (PFI) in 1985, kept a maintenance crew to run the field while it looked for investors.

The Saltpond Offshore Fuel Company (SOFC), which eventually took over, came with a group of workers mostly Ghanaians and has, since last August 19, been refurbishing the field to diagnose the defects on its seven idle wells. Kwarteng said now "we have seen what is wrong with the wells, we have come out with solutions to ameliorate their conditions to make them productive."

He said SOFC has sub-contracted the job to four Nigerian contractors who have worked on three of the wells with encouraging results of crude flow, adding, "We have flared natural gas from the number one well as well". Kwarteng said the potential of the Saltpond field is good, but "we have a problem with storage and we have requested for a storage tank of over 12000 metric tonne capacity for a start."

The Project engineer said all the wells have been metered and confirmed that they could produce over a 1,500 barrels of crude oil per day if they are all reactivated. GNPC has worked with its sub-contractors, Lushann-Eternit, established by a US-based Ghanaian petroleum engineer, Mr Quincy Sintim-Aboagye and Oil Data, a Nigerian company. Kwarteng said the company has so far spent about four million dollars on the project from a loan by the Continental Trust Bank of Nigeria