Ghana’s president launches oil and gas bid round

Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has launched the country’s first oil and gas exploration licensing round, local media reported Tuesday.

Blocks 2, 3 and 4 will be open for bidding, while deepwater blocks 5 and 6 are to be allocated through direct negotiations. Block 1 will be reserved for the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Graphic Online reported.

“Given that production is taking place at a faster rate than reserves are being added, we need to reverse this state of affairs immediately, especially in today’s oil market environment where crude oil prices are in the USD 70-80 per barrel range,” the president said.

International oil companies are expected to submit expressions of interest by the end of November. Local companies will be pre-qualified for participation in December.

In Q1 2019, the pre-qualified applicants will be announced and invitations to tender will be issued to them. They will have four months to submit their tenders.

The Licensing Bid Rounds and Negotiation Committee will evaluate the bids between June and August 2019. The successful bids are set to be announced in mid-August 2019, followed by negotiations with the committee.

The president also warned dormant licence holders that their agreements could be terminated.

“The Ministry of Energy will engage with the operators, after the review, on the adoption of best methods for increasing oil recovery rate,” the president said. “For petroleum agreements that are dormant, the ministry will encourage the operators to consider inviting stronger partners to join them or risk the termination of these petroleum agreements should they persist in failing to meet their minimum work obligations.”