Also, US$ 1.1 billion worth of service contracts went to joint ventures, which included Indigenous Ghanaian Companies (IGCs).

Additionally, as at the end of the third quarter of 2021, IGCsand Joint Ventures benefitted from value of service contracts worth US$5.2 million and US$45 million respectively out of $54 million.

According to Egbert Faibille, Chief Executive Officer, Petroleum Commission, the increasing rate of Ghanaian participation in the upstream petroleum sector was as a result of the local content participation law passed in 2014.

He was speaking at the ongoing Local Content and Exhibition Conference at Takoradi in the Western Region on the theme ‘Sustaining local content development through enhanced exploration and production activities in the era of energy transition’.

He asked the indigenous Ghanaian companies providing various services in the industry to adopt greener technologies in their operations to attract more businesses.

The Commission, Mr Faibille assured, would continue to develop relevant guidelines to deepen the implementation of the legislative instrument backing the law.

Despite the successes, he said, the upstream petroleum sector continued to face several challenges which was stifling the growth and development of indigenous participation in the sector.

The CEO mentioned that, the amendments to the law had introduced channel partnerships and strategic alliance arrangements between non-indigenous Ghanaian companies and indigenous Ghanaian companies, as additional avenue of foreign participation in the industry.

He emphasised that channel  partnerships and strategic alliances had not come to replace joint ventures,  but, to  support joint ventures, vary the modes of contracting in  the industry and  enhance the scopes for the supply of goods and services reserved for indigenous Ghanaian companies.

“We have also given out standard agreements to be used for channel partnerships and strategic alliances to stakeholders for their study and feedback. We aim to formally commence approvals for channel partnerships and strategic alliances from the end of first quarter 2023,” he added.

He noted that, local content development had its inherent challenges while the issue of energy transition presented another layer of challenge.

Already, the CEO added, Ghana, in a quest to harness its hydrocarbons, was addressing availability of risk capital to undertake exploration and production (E&P) activities in the country.

Mr Faibille said, technology transfer had always been the key driver of the oil and gas industry and that “as technologies to exploit previously unrecoverable assets are turned out, companies continued to explore innovative ways to make their businesses more efficient and effective.

Giving an  outlook for 2023, he hinted that, E&P activities relied on injection of a lot of risk capital and that,  to  drill an exploratory well in deep water, which might cost between US$ 50  US$ 70 million.

Eni, he said, was scheduled to roll out the Appraisal Programme for the Akoma Discovery and Eban Discovery.

Tullow and its partners, he said, would continue the TEN Enhancement Project and the Jubilee South East Project aimed at extending the Jubilee Field with new production drill centres.