Ghana, two Companies sign Petroleum Exploration Agreement

Ghana and Devon Energy and Encana International both oil exploration companies on Monday signed an agreement to prospect for oil in the blocks offshore the Keta Basin.

The deep-water agreement brings together the two companies in a joint venture to pool investment resources of 56 million dollars for exploration activities in the basin. The amount to be invested is besides the 23 million dollars that Devon had already spent on the project after it acquired the assets of Santa Fe in the Basin.

Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Energy and Mr Moses Boateng, Managing Director of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation signed for Ghana, while Mr Steve Stoutamaire, Exploration Manager, Devon and Alastair Hill, Vice-President Africa Exploration, Encana initialled for their respective companies.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said the agreement was a result of government's deliberate decision to streamline the operations of GNPC to enable it focus on its core business of getting the private sector to explore the country's hydrocarbon resources.

"GNPC has been overhauled. Trimmed down from a staff-strength of over 700 to about 100 today. The corporation is being retooled. We have workers who are reasonably motivated. Each one of them is excited to be part of a 'team of Destiny' - a team destined to strike oil for its nation."

The Minister, who was full of praise for the achievements of the two companies, said government was convinced that the country was endowed with hydrocarbon resources that could be exploited for the socio-economic development of the country.

Mr Kan-Dapaah announced that the two companies had also undertaken to kick-start the re-tooling programme of the GNPC through the provision of some PC based workstations and accessories for geoscientists and engineers to facilitate their work. Mr Boateng said the agreement would boost exploration activities in the Keta Basin, which hitherto had not seen any high level of exploration.

He described the agreement as balanced, saying GNPC would share its in-depth knowledge on the geology of the area with the companies while they would bring their expertise and capital to help the country achieve its dream of oil production.

He expressed the hope that the exploration would yield result to attract other companies to the country. Mr Soutaimaire said the agreement was achieved against the background of an outstanding co-operation among the partners. He said both parties stood to benefit substantially if the exploration was successful.

Devon is one of the world's largest and most successful independent oil and gas exploration and production companies based in Houston and ENCANA (Ghana) Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canada-based Independent Oil and Gas Company ENCANA Corporation.