Category: Plenary

The growing concerns on energy transition is having a significant impact on oil and gas projects and financing as intense public pressure has been directed towards investors and financiers to reduce the production of fossil fuels. Foreign direct investments targeted at Ghana’s upstream oil and gas industry continue to dwindle while local investors and financial institutions are risk averse to finance oil and gas projects. Any chance of sustaining local content development depends on Ghana’s ability to confront the need to dig deep and finance rigorous E&P activities. It is therefore imperative for the country to adopt home-grown strategies to finance the exploitation of oil and gas resources and enhance E&P activities in the industry.

This session explores various avenues of financing upstream oil and gas value chain to ensure continuous local content development in the era of energy transition.

The upstream petroleum industry is characterized by its long-life cycle, huge investments, technology requirements, impact on environment and risk associated with operations.

As offshore oil and gas exploration is moving further into ultra-deep waters, onshore exploration is also increasingly taking place on lands with economic activities. As a result, these risks have been further exacerbated thus, increasing the complexities of underwriting upstream oil and gas risk in Ghana, and constraining the capacities of Ghanaian insurance companies to underwrite upstream oil and gas risk.

In responding to these eminent challenges, the insurance industry in Ghana has developed a framework to underwrite risks to cover personnel, property and operations in the oil and gas industry.

This session will explore the implementation of insurance policies and the management of the various risks in Ghana’s upstream oil and gas industry.

Being the largest free trade agreement (by participating states), AfCFTA is expected to boost intra Africa trade by eliminating import duties, tariffs and provide guarantee for free movement of persons, goods, materials, and services.

There are many opportunities for oil and gas companies who seek to expand regionally to take advantage of AfCFTA. Companies with well-developed capacities and capabilities (technical know-how, infrastructure, financials, etc.) and are able to build partnership arrangements to deliver technologically intensive services in the era of energy transition  are better positioned to gain the expected benefits of AfCFTA.

This session will explore the benefits of building a regional oil and gas business and the strategies to be adopted to enhance access to raw materials, skilled labour, market, finance, know-how and expertise, technology and innovation.

Discussions on regional integration to create synergies and accelerate development is essential particularly in countries with trade and local content polices. The main objective of AfCFTA is to among others create a single continental market, harmonise trade policies and enhance economic integration among member states. While the benefits of AfCFTA is eminent, the potential impact cannot be underrated particularly as certain provisions in the Agreement conflicts with the tenets of local content policies and may derail the gains achieved in local content development. There is a need for an optimal trade off in areas where Indigenous Ghanaian Companies can leverage on the benefits of a single market under AfCFTA and the advantages proffered by L.I.2204.

This session will discuss Ghana’s participation in AfCFTA, exploring the prospect and challenges for Local Content Development in the upstream oil and gas industry.

Ghana’s oil and gas industry continues to evolve and grow at a steady and promising rate, rife with opportunities for the country and investors.

In the last two decades, significant E&P activities have been carried out in the Western (Tano -Cape Three Points) Basin resulting in 30 offshore discoveries. Some of these discoveries have been developed as the three offshore fields (Greater Jubilee, TEN and Sankofa-Gye Nyame Fields) which are currently in production. The remaining discoveries are yet to be developed.

In contrast, limited E&P activities have been undertaken in the Central (Saltpond) Basin, the Eastern (Accra-Keta) Basin, and the Voltaian Basin despite their projected petroleum prospectivity.

Indeed, the slow pace of exploration and new field developments in Ghana’s Sedimentary Basins (due to factors such as global oil price drop, Ghana-Cote D’Ivoire maritime boundary dispute, COVID-19) has affected investments and growth in local content in the industry.

However, Government’s objective is to use its petroleum resources to rapidly accelerate growth and industrialisation through active participation of Ghanaians and Ghanaian businesses, which is largely dependent on the level of activities in the industry. In the wake of energy transition and emerging global trends, it is imperative that the country stimulates E&P activities through enhanced investment to sustain local content development.

The session will discuss the prospectivity of Ghana’s sedimentary basins, strategies to attract investment and enhance E&P activities to sustain local content development.

Despite growing trends in a shift towards cleaner energy, it is without doubt that oil and gas will continue to play a vital role in Ghana’s energy mix. To harness indigenous resources, Government’s key objective is to accelerate the exploitation of its domestic oil and gas resources (stranded petroleum resources) for national development.

In our quest to avoid stranded petroleum resources and accelerate exploitation of our domestic oil and gas resources, government intention is to use local content development as a vehicle to achieve its objective.

This session focuses on recent developments in the oil and gas industry in the wake of energy transition, and the strategies to adopt to deepen local content development.