Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of oil firm Springfield Exploration and Production, Kevin Okyere, has asserted that the future of the country’s oil and gas industry remains bright despite the exit of oil major, ExxonMobil, from the country’s upstream petroleum sector.
Touching on ExxonMobil’s exit from the country’s upstream sector in an interview, Mr Okyere described the oil major’s exit as unfortunate.
“Perhaps my assumption is, if they have an acreage, they are like we are looking for two billion barrels or three billion barrels or one billion barrels minimum, so that is the minimum threshold but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the minimum threshold for everyone else,” he explained.
“It doesn’t mean that Ghana doesn’t have any good prospect, it doesn’t mean that asset on its own is not good, it means for Exxon to stay they need to find a certain kind of reserves and perhaps maybe they didn’t find that kind of reserves after their seismic campaign,” he added.
Speaking further in the interview, Mr Okyere expressed optimism that other oil firms in the country will grab the opportunity to explore the Deepwater Cape Three Points (DWCTP) oil field after ExxonMobil’s exit.
“I think that yes it was unfortunate for Exxon to look at not going ahead but I believe other companies would love whatever it is that they found and will find that it fits their portfolio so the fact that it doesn’t fit Exxon portfolio doesn’t mean it is bad for the country,” he stated.
Read: Strategic options for Ghana as ExxonMobil exits – IES
Background
US oil major, ExxonMobil last month abandoned its exploration exercise in Ghana. This was contained in a letter addressed to the Minister of Energy and other stakeholders dated 18 May 2021. This comes at a time when major oil companies appear to be moving away from oil.
ExxonMobil, which recently established Exxon Low Carbon Solutions to commercialize its extensive low-carbon technology portfolio, is aggressively pursuing divestments, after suffering a US$22.4 billion loss last year. It is under pressure from shareholder groups pushing for the company to shift to cleaner fuels.
It, therefore, comes as no surprise news that ExxonMobil has determined not to apply for an extension to its exploration license to drill any exploration wells, thereby, relinquishing 100% of its rights in and to the Deepwater Cape Three Point block (DWCTP block).
In the letter, ExxonMobil said it had resigned as operator of the block, having fulfilled its contractual obligations during the initial exploration period under the petroleum agreement of 28 November 2018. The work done included processing about 2222 sq. km of 3D seismic data. It, however, failed to drill the optional exploration well under the initial work programme.
GNPC and Goil are, therefore, free to search for a new operator to partner them on the DWCTP block. Insiders believe the prospects are promising. Documents sighted by Asaase News indicate that the work done so far on the block by ExxonMobil points to a current unrisked deterministic recoverable volumes estimated to be 494 million barrels for the low case and 1806 million barrels for the high case, using optimistic reservoir parameters.
This puts the risked recoverable volumes for the medium case at 87 million barrels and at best around 319 million barrels.
ExxonMobil controlled 80% of the block, with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) holding 15% and Goil Offshore Ghana Ltd having the remaining 5%.
