Ghana's daily oil production will reach 240,000 barrels by 2020, Mr Michael Aryeetey, Chief Operating Officer of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Exploration and Production Company Limited (Explorco) has said.

He said this would be attained, when the three oil fields would then be at their apex production; adding: "This is good news for all stakeholders including the people of Ghana."

'However, this trend will not last if investment into the industry stalls, pace of exploration reduces, we do not find more oil and gas, and we do not commercialise our finds,' Mr Aryeetey stated in Accra at the Seventh College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Public Lecture.

He said currently about 50 per cent of the sedimentary basin offshore was open with very little activity; adding that the Voltaian basin with a size of about 103,000 square kilometres, and currently undergoing some level of exploration, led by GNPC.

Mr Aryeetey said the basin would also be available for licensing to investors in the next two years or so.

'Offshore Ghana still host a number of stranded or captured resources which cannot be commercialised on their own. It is important that going forward, all stakeholders come together and find ways through which these resources can be commercialized either together or in clusters,' he said.

He said: 'Ghana's oil reserves currently stand at 1.27 billion oil equivalent. This is relatively small compared to Nigeria's 40 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

'With almost 200 million barrels already produced, we must all work together to improve our replacement ratio by finding and developing more resources.'

He said it was the expectation that even though oil prices generally continue the downward pressure in response to higher supply against lower demand, when the problem was resolved in the country's favour, Ghana would continue to attract serious and well established oil companies who would work with GNPC and Explorco to ensure that an aggressive exploration and development activities in the basins were sustained.

'This is key for us because increased exploration, development and production activities will lead to increased work load and demand for local participation and use of local goods and services,' Mr Aryeetey said.

'Increased industry activities in Ghana also present opportunities for improving infrastructure and facilitate continuous operations thereby ensuring that our government revenues are sustained and citizens remain in jobs to promote economic growth,' he stated.

The GNPC was established by the GNPC Law 1983 (PNDC Law 64), with the primary object of undertaking the exploration, development, production and disposal of petroleum.

GNPC started operations in 1985.
The Corporation is an anchor partner in all upstream operations and currently has stakes in 18 Petroleum Blocks and is the Operator of the Voltaian Basin.

GNPC is also the National Gas Aggregator.