Jubilee and ENI partners have announced investments totalling $3.5 billion in Ghana’s oil sector, Ghana Investment Promotion Authority (GIPA) CEO Simon Madjie has said.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, he highlighted the commitments as evidence of activity in the sector. He also pointed to interest from other international oil companies.

The combined figure comprises a $2 billion investment announced by the Jubilee partners and a separate $1.5 billion announcement by ENI and its partners.

Mr Madjie said the Jubilee commitment would fund the drilling of 20 wells in the field.

“The announcements by the Jubilee partners through Cosmos and Co. that they were going to invest $2 billion to drill 20 wells in the Jubilee field.”

He also cited the ENI commitment, although he did not give details of the work it would finance.

“We saw the $1.5 billion announcement by ENI and their partners and co., and so there's a lot of activity within that space.”

Beyond those announcements, Mr Madjie said Chevron and Shell had signed a memorandum of understanding to explore work in the Eastern Keta Basin.

“But what we all know is that at Africa Oil Week, Chevron and Shell signed an MOU to look at work in the Eastern Keta Basin. So that's ongoing.”

He also pointed to Petrobras’ interest in Ghana’s available oil acreages and blocks. He said that interest had been reported in newspapers.

Mr Madjie directed questions about the technical details of these developments to the Petroleum Commission and the Ministry of Energy.

“I'm sure folks at the Petroleum Commission will give you a lot more technical details.”

Asked about ExxonMobil, he acknowledged that talks had taken place over a possible return. He declined to disclose further information.

“I knew that there were some talks for them to come back. It's not something that can be disclosed now.”

He said further disclosure should be left to the sector authorities.

“So I, I think you leave that entirely to the Minister of Energy and Petroleum Commission.”