Ghana’s oil production will increase by 2%, come next year, according to a forecast from Fitch Solutions, research arm of ratings agency, Fitch.

It said the longer-term outlook for the country’s crude oil production is positive, based on the expectation for continued field developments. 

Among the assets that hold the highest benefit is the Pecan field located in the Gulf of Guinea, with total production capacity of 110,000 barrels per day. The Pecan field, operated by Aker Energy, is the largest of several discoveries made.

“Our longer-term outlook for Ghana’s crude oil production is positive, based on the expectation for continued field developments in the offshore blocks. Among the assets that hold the highest upside is the Pecan field located in the Gulf of Guinea, with total production capacity of 110,000b/d”

The Pecan field is estimated to contain about 334 million barrels of oil equivalents, and is expected to require an investment of about $4.4bn. Aker Energy operates the block with a 50% stake in partnership with Russia’s Lukoil (38%), state-owned Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (10%) and Fueltrade (2%).

Fitch Solutions said the near-term outlook for oil production was already subdued given the impact of the global oil price crash on the industry, as well as the impact of the covid-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, the technical challenges at both the Jubilee and TEN fields which constitute 80% of total oil production, are also expected to drag on short-term growth in the nation’s oil output.

However, “significant impacts of Covid-19 on production were largely averted, aided by the Ghanaian government introducing exemptions to allow charter flights for oil and gas workers into the country, allowing crew changes to continue”, the report said.

Continuing, it said the strong performance at Jubilee and TEN is a positive development for Ghana’s oil sector given they are Ghana’s two most productive fields, stressing, “yet despite the recent performance at the two fields, growth in output still has further to go.”

Recent figures from Tullow Oil, show that gross production at the Jubilee and TEN fields averaged 136,700 barrels of oil per day between January and August.

This is better than what it had anticipated coming into the year.

Last year, the country recorded 4.4 billion dollars from crude oil exports.