Energy & Utilities

Roughly seven years after the discovery of oil, Ghana’s hydrocarbons sector has seen significant growth in terms of both production and infrastructure, yet the industry is still very much a work in progress. New projects are being ramped up to develop the sector, including for the downstream segment. Ghana’s proven crude oil reserves were estimated at 660m barrels as of January 2013, which could be higher as exploration is still ongoing. In the near term, the country has begun to shift to optimising the development of its hydrocarbons in a sustainable manner. It also aims to finalise linkages with associated sectors, including the power industry – an objective that the planned gas processing plant, upon completion in late 2014, should start to fulfil. While financial and technical bottlenecks have hampered the pace of refinery activity and new electricity generation, should these challenges be resolved, the country could emerge as not only an exporter of crude, but also as a downstream petroleum products manufacturer and a provider of surplus electricity to the regional power pool.

This chapter contains interviews with Kwesi Botchwey, Chairman, Ghana National Gas Company; Abdalla Salem El-Badri, Secretary-General, OPEC; and Kirk Koffi, CEO, Volta River Authority.