Indigenous upstream petroleum company, Springfield Group, has announced the arrival of the Deep-sea Bollstra rig to commence the appraisal of the Afinex-1x well on the company’s West Cape Three Points offshore block.

This was announced by the CEO, Kevin Okyere in a press conference organised in Accra.

According to him, the Afina well is expected to add about 50,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to Ghana’s production capacity.

The announcement to commence the appraisal programme follows a ruling on July 8th, 2024 by the international court of arbitration which gave Springfield the go-ahead to complete the unitization of the Afina/Sankofa fields in line with the tribunal’s recommendation to undertake the action in 6 months.

Speaking to the media, Mr. Okyere noted that the appraisal programme, which is scheduled to start soon will take a record time of about 35 days to complete.

“I am pleased, distinguished media members, to announce that the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit, the Deepsea Bollstra, has arrived in Ghana and commenced the re-entry and Drill Stem Test of Afina 1-x in line with the Appraisal Programme.”

He added that “the programme is scheduled for approximately a month and will enable us to flow test the Afina reservoir and obtain well productivity data.”

He also used the opportunity to clarify comments made by the Executive director of the African Centre for Energy Policy, Ben Boakye on completing the appraisal and further submitting contradictory reports. He debunked the comments and described it as false.

The Afina well travels about 70,000 km offshore and 4,000 km into deep waters. A successful campaign will makes Springfield the first independent African producer to venture into deep waters.

The process, according to Mr. Okyere costs Springfield about $70 million dollars. The company together with its partners, the GNPC, GNPC-Explorco as well as international contractors such as Northern Ocean Limited, Halliburton and more are expected to carry out the process.