The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Petroleum Commission, Egbert Faibille Jnr, has said the upstream oil and gas regulator is working closely with the Ministry of Energy to ensure that the country remains a highly prospective petroleum investment destination.
According to him, the commission and the latter in the last couple of weeks, have come out with a strategy paper with some far-reaching proposals to accelerate exploration, development and production (E&P) activities in the upstream oil and gas industry.
“We are working with the Ministry of Energy on how we can change tactics and ensure that from a policy perspective, a lot is done to see to it that the country remains a highly prospective petroleum investment place,” he elaborated.
He added that it is also working towards data acquisition to ensure the availability of quality 2D and 3D data to enable investors make good investment decisions.
The CEO said this during a panel discussion session at the commission’s upstream petroleum data and stakeholder engagement workshop in collaboration with Petroleum Geo Services (PGS), held in Accra. It was themed ‘enhancing E&P activities in Ghana in the era of energy transition- the role of petroleum data.
Meanwhile to enhance the upstream industry, he said the commission is moving towards multi-client seismic model as a policy to plug the country’s seismic data gaps, as part of measures to attract investors. Under this, he noted that steps are been taken to transition to an environment where investors will not have to take the burden of spending on seismic data.
“Investors would be given the well option as data is already ready. We do not want to saddle them with the option of coming in to come and acquire seismic data before being allowed to drill.
“When we do our promotions as a commission, what we strive to do is to attract International Oil Companies (IOCs) to pick up plots to do E&P activities,” he further noted.
While lauding the industry’s past players for the successes chalked, he charged those at the helm presently to ensure that areas that do not have good quality data are actioned as soon as possible.
“A lot has been achieved and I would like to commend those who have built the industry up to this point. But those of us in charge now also owe it a duty to ourselves and generations yet to come to ensure that areas that do not have enough or good quality data are dealt with as soon as possible,” he also added.
Workshop
Participants at the workshop were taken through presentations on how seismic data is acquired, processed and interpreted, the role of petroleum data in supporting E&P activities, seismic surveys and data contracting and latest trends and technologies in petroleum data management analytics among others.
The mandate of the Petroleum Commission is to among other things, promote the country’s hydrocarbon potentials for investments.
