In order to advance and strengthen cooperation between the two nations in the oil and gas industry, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC-Ghana) and the Gambia National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC-Gambia) have renewed their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which was initially signed in 2019.
The new MoU extends cooperation between the two entities expected to run for three more years until 2025.
This would guarantee that GNPC-Ghana shares knowledge from its operations so that GNPC-Gambia can start oil and gas operations on a solid foundation, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GNPC- Ghana, Opoku-Ahweneeh Danquah noted at the signing of the MoU.
“GNPC-Ghana is excited to share knowledge from its operations offshore and on-shore to enable GNPC-Gambia to begin its offshore and onshore operations on a sound footing,” he said.
Under the MOU, GNPC-Ghana will support GNPC-Gambia by providing technical capacity building in petroleum research, exploration and production techniques, information systems and data management. The two parties will also share expertise, equipment, and personnel along the oil and gas value chain.
The GNPC-Gambia is seeking a new exploration and production (E&P) partner for its offshore block A1, through a bidding process. It is believed that The Gambia has a good perspective for hydrocarbons (Deepwater PPL Gambia). The area marks the northern extent of the Casamance-Bissau sub-basin which forms part of the Mauritania – Senegal – Gambia – Guinea Bissau coastal (MSGBC) basin. The highly prospective MSGBC basin has registered recent massive finds in both oil and gas in the western most of West Africa.
GNPC-Gambia looks forward to becoming a leading operator in the eventuality of commercial discoveries.
Commenting on the MoU signing, the Managing Director of GNPC-Gambia Mr. Yaya F. Barrow expressed “appreciation and gratitude to GNPC-Ghana for lending expertise to the GNPC-Gambia during the first phase of the MOU”.
He expounded on activities held under the MOU, notably attachments and executive visits, that “have added significant value to GNPC-Gambia”.
Mr. Barrow took the opportunity to extend an invitation to GNPC-Ghana to advance cooperation through joint ventures with the GNPC-Gambia in its frontier exploration efforts.
The relationship between GNPC-Ghana and GNPC Gambia dates back to 2018 with GNPC-Ghana providing secondment opportunities to the technical staff of GNPC-Gambia and assisting with the development of the Human Resource capacity of GNPC-Gambia. A total of nineteen (19) GNPC-Gambia staff are currently on rotation secondment in various departments at GNPC-Ghana.
