Former President John Dramani Mahama has bemoaned the lack of additional production activity in the upstream oil sector in the last seven years under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

In a post on his Twitter page on Monday, February 6, the former President attributed the lack of activity in the upstream sector to the greed and ineptitude of President Akufo-Addo.

Wasted years! We bequeathed to the Akufo-Addo gov’t two new oil fields, TEN and Sankofa. Greed and ineptitude as against national interest means a sad reality of no additional production activity in our upstream oil sector in the last 7 years.

— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) February 6, 2023

In 2017, the government revealed that it was banking its hopes on the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) and the Sankofa-Gye-Nyame oil fields to achieve its growth target of 6.3 percent this year.

TEN Field Project

The TEN Oil field, which started operating in August 2016, was expected to produce between 20,000 to 23,000 barrels of oil per day.

The project is a joint venture led by Tullow Oil with a stake of 47.185 percent, with the other partners, Kosmos Energy, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and Petro SA, having a stake of 17 per cent, 17 per cent, 15 per cent and 3.815 per cent, respectively.

The project derives its name from the three fields, Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme, which lie 60 kilometres off the coast of the Western Region, Ghana.

TEN was expected to produce about 300 million barrels of oil over a 20-year period, equivalent to 80 per cent of oil and 20 per cent of gas.

The field will produce 80,000 barrels of oil and 180mm scf of gas per day when it reaches full production.

Sankofa project

The Sankofa-Gye Nyame Field in the Tano Basin of the West Cape Three Points, on the other hand, delivered its first oil in August 2017 and its first gas in February 2018 to augment thermal power generation that ensured sustainable electricity production.

It was expected to deliver an additional 30,000 barrels per day of oil and 180 million cubic feet (5.07 million cubic metres) per day of gas to Ghana.

Gas from the project is expected to help generate 1,100 MW of additional electricity and once on stream, it will produce enough gas to increase the country’s electricity supply by 50 per cent.