Ghana is not attracting new investments in its upstream petroleum industry, to the extent that no new Petroleum Agreement has been signed since 2018, according to the 2025 Semi-Annual Report by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC).

The report stated that fewer drilling and completion operations on the Jubilee field were carried out during the period under review.

Only one well was drilled on the Jubilee Field and is currently being completed.

For TEN Field Operations, there was no drilling and completion activity by the Operator, Tullow, for the first half of 2025.

The report continued that the operator Eni carried out drilling and completion activities on the SGN field by sidetracking the existing SNKE-1X ST oil producer well. This was after Eni had sought approval from the Minister for Energy and Green Transition to amend the OCTP integrated project Plan of Development (PoD).

According to the report, this amendment was important to sidetrack the SNKE-1X ST well to a different location as an oil producer for better well optimisation. The activities being conducted include the de-completion, plugging and abandonment of the original hole, drilling of a pilot hole to properly design the drain hole trajectory, and finally, the drilling and open hole gravel pack completion of the sidetrack drain hole.

On the other hand, the Plan of Development (PoD) by Pecan Energies was approved in June 2023, and the Contractor has commenced preparatory works for the start of the phased development.

However, as of the end of June 2025, the Contractor had not reached Final Investment Decision (FID), which is the next major hurdle before actual commencement of field development.  

 Voltarian Basin Project

According to the Petroleum Commission (PC), Phase IV of GNPC’s 2D seismic acquisition programme (infill campaign) commenced in March 2023 and ended in April 2024. It was also in two sub-phases (Area A and Area B).

The Phase IV acquisition increased the density of the current 2D seismic grid, reduced the data gaps, reduced geological risk and improved the geological understanding of the basin.

The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition stated that the desktop studies are being conducted on the blocks as some of the upstream petroleum laws and regulations are being reviewed to align with the Onshore Petroleum Exploration and Production Policy, based on which the exploration licence agreements were signed.

The 2025 Semi-Annual Report, which covers the period January to June 2025, examined various aspects of petroleum revenue management. These include data on production, liftings, total revenue accrued to the State, allocations, utilisation of the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), and the management of the Ghana Petroleum Funds - namely, the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) and the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF).

Meanwhile, the first half of 2025 has seen some exploratory activities on some blocks, while other blocks
have not witnessed any activity at all