Local firms in Ghana’s upstream petroleum sector can do tremendously well in deep water operations when given the right incentives to excel, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghanaian owned Springfield Group, Mr Kevin Okyere has indicated.

According to Mr Okyere, “when it comes to capabilities in exploration and production – particularly in deep water – local companies may not be able to undertake these costly endeavours without the right incentives.”

The Springfield Group CEO who was speaking with global research and advisory company, the Oxford Business Group (OBG), expressed confidence in the abilities of local firms to excel in the upstream sector, even though it would take some time.

He hoped government would increase support to the firms. “We hope that government will continue to create an attractive environment for local companies operating in and entering the sector,” Mr Okyere stated.

Springfield Group is the first wholly Ghanaian owned independent entity to hold a majority interest and operate an oil and gas asset in Ghana.

The firm, together with its partners, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and its exploration company EXPLORCO, doubled its discovered oil reserves to 1.5 billion barrels in late 2019 after drilling in deepwater at the West Cape Three Points Block 2.

The company estimates that the undiscovered potential of the block is over 3bn barrels of oil and gas in proven reservoir units.

Mr Okyere pointed out that Springfield Group used local companies that may not have had experience but did have the capacity to perform during the Afina drilling campaign.

“Local service companies that had been registered with the Petroleum Commission for freight forwarding, but had never been able to prove themselves, were able to take advantage of this opportunity to gain experience.

While there is a long way to go, there are more companies that are taking the right steps towards building capacity and, importantly, there are also more companies that are willing to take the risk of tapping local talent for their projects,” Mr Okyere stated.

Mr Okyere admitted that government was trying to do more to ensure that local companies are involved and that International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Ghana were increasingly aware that they could gain if they had more locals working for them.

The local capacity development that has occurred has been done by IOCs, as they have the experience, and IOCs in Ghana all have a 10- or 15-year plan to build local capacity.