President Mahama has told members of Investment group Renaissance Capital in the US that the prospects of Ghana’s oil and gas industry are very good for foreign direct investors.

President Mahama is attending the 67th session of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

He told investors that despite few challenges confronting the jubilee field from achieving its projected 120,000 barrels of oil daily, the field has nonetheless been very productive.

“Ghana has made significant discoveries of oil and gas and continues to make discoveries every day. The most recent being a week or two ago… It takes time to appraise these wells and bring them on stream but we have a string of developments that will start to get into the phase of development towards production before the end of the year.”

He said the no flair policy on the gas is affecting the total production and that until the government is ready to refine the gas, it will have to keep producing at a lower rate. He said “the prospects in oil and gas look very good; very, very good. There is more exploration taking place and a lot of it have been to the Western part offshore but there is a lot exploration beginning to start on the Eastern sea border in Ghana.”

He however says because the water on the Eastern border is deeper, it will cost a lot more to explore.

'5,000 megawatts by 2015'

President Mahama also said Ghana’s power sector is undergoing changes which make the country an attractive destination for foreign direct investments. He said government is looking to rump up power generation to 5,000 megawatts by 2015.

He said Ghana significant advantage in the production of power due to the strategically positioned Akosombo Dam. He indicated that government is looking at partnering private organisations to find ways to increase the power generation due to the demands.

President Mahama said the demand for power supply internally is increasing and that government is exploring avenues to continue supply its neighbours – Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso – with power.