This comes on the heels of major exploration activities commencing offshore in Western Region in the past decade to spur economic growth and development.

The gas would mainly be channeled to the energy sector to bridge the deficit in gas supply for power generation.

The Chief Executive of Petroleum Commission, Mr. Theophilus Ahwireng who disclosed this in Accra yesterday at a stakeholders’ workshop on oil and gas, said the country had a broad market to consume the gas from the oil and gas fields.

“The good news here is that Ghana has a very strong demand for gas in the power sector and the hydro sources are limited therefore we are optimistic that we will have the market to consume all the gas locally,” he stressed.

He indicated that about 200,000 barrels of oil was set to be produced by 2018 following the commencement of production at the Jubilee and Tweneboa Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) fields.

Mr. Ahwireng said there were ongoing exploration activities at other fields such as the Tano basin, Cape Three Points sub-basin as well as the Saltpond/Central basin to increase oil production and rake in more revenue for the country.

According to him, it was imperative for local firms to take advantage of the local content regulation Legislative Instrument LI 2204 to invest in the oil and gas production.

He explained that the regulation offered local oil and gas companies a considerable per cent of the contracts which were opened to all local firms to compete for services including freight forwarding and catering.

A deputy Minister of Finance, Ms. Mona Quartey called on the financial service providers to support indigenous firms to invest in the oil and gas sector.

She urged them to design innovative and well-structured financial services to meet the needs of local companies, stressing that “for the oil and gas sector to deliver as a strong contributor to economic growth there was the need for financial sector to play a significant role in supporting local firms”.

“This has been the trend for many oil and gas countries around the world. This should give room to financial institutions to be more innovative, diversify their products, integrate markets and manage risk more efficiently,” she said.

The Deputy Minister of Petroleum, Mr. Ben Dagadu assured of government’s commitment to supporting indigenous companies to be more competitive in the oil and gas industry.

That, he said, had been shown by the passage of the Petroleum Commission Act 821 and Petroleum Local Content and Local Participation Regulations LI 2204 to enhance the participation of local firms in the upstream and downstream petroleum industry.

“To ensure active participation of local companies, the LI 2240 has, for example, stipulated that a contract or sub-contractor licensed to carry out operational activity should ensure that its contract has a local content component,” he said.

By Charles Amankwa