Ghana’s oil output up 30% after five years of decline, Jinapor says

Ghana’s crude oil production has risen by about 30% this year, reversing five years of decline, Energy and Green Transition Minister John Abdulai Jinapor has said.

Speaking at African Energy Week in Cape Town, he linked the recovery to renewed investment in the upstream petroleum sector, which covers oil and gas exploration and production.

The government is seeking to sustain the increase through additional drilling, changes to investment terms and discussions with international oil companies.

It also wants to secure more affordable natural gas for domestic power generation. “We have seen a continued systematic decline in oil output over the past five years. But this year, I am happy to announce that oil production has increased by about 30%,” Mr Jinapor said.

The reported rebound follows a $2 billion memorandum of understanding signed with Kosmos Energy in 2025 to extend the Jubilee and Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) licences to 2040.

Following the extensions, the government approved an amended development plan for Jubilee covering up to 20 additional wells. The programme is expected to support higher oil production and strengthen domestic gas supply.

Separately, Kosmos Energy’s August results indicated that the Jubilee partners were seeking a rig for a drilling campaign of up to 10 wells between 2027 and 2028. Operations were expected to begin in mid-2027.

Those planned wells represent future activity, rather than production already contributing to this year’s reported increase.

Jubilee averaged approximately 72,000 barrels of oil a day on a gross basis in the second quarter of 2026. That figure represents production from the whole field, rather than Kosmos’s share alone.

The J76 and J77 wells came online in June and July respectively. Kosmos maintained its 2026 capital expenditure budget at $350 million.

The company’s chief executive, Andy Inglis, said the licence extension had strengthened its confidence to invest in the field, including through technology, while supporting gas supplies to Ghana.

“As we deal with energy security, it also comes down to energy affordability. We agreed to supply low-cost gas to the country,” he said.

Beyond the existing fields, Mr Jinapor said the government was pursuing changes to Ghana’s upstream fiscal regime, the financial terms governing petroleum investment, to make the sector more competitive.

He said the energy and finance ministers had approved the proposed changes, which were expected to go to Cabinet and then Parliament.

Mr Jinapor also said Ghana would sign an agreement with Chevron after parliamentary approval. The supplied account did not specify the agreement’s scope, value or timetable.

Discussions are also under way with Shell, CNOOC and Petrobras as the government seeks to attract more international oil companies.

The next steps include securing approval for the proposed fiscal changes and advancing the planned drilling programme.