The Vitol Group, a global energy and commodity trading company in a statement released on Monday said the development marks the beginning of stable supplies of cost-effective and environmentally friendly, domestic fuel for Ghana’s power sector.

It said in addition, Ghana will benefit significantly from GNPC’s carried and participating interest in the project, Ghana’s royalty share of oil and gas production and taxes paid by Vitol and Eni.

The estimated net cost of gas to Ghana will be less than $4.5/MMBtu, greatly reducing Ghana’s fuel costs compared to liquid fuels or imported gas.

"The project will provide approximately 180 MMscf/d for at least 15 years, sufficient to supply half of Ghana’s power generation requirements. It is the only deep offshore non-associated gas development in Sub-Saharan Africa entirely destined for domestic consumption and will guarantee stable, reliable, affordable gas supplies to Ghana with estimated energy cost savings of up to 40% per year for the State," the Vitol Group said in a statement.

"Gas is flowing from two of the four deepwater subsea wells and gas volumes will increase gradually as the country’s downstream gas infrastructure undergoes further commissioning.

"OCTP Integrated Oil and Gas Project is made up of Eni 44.44% Operator, Vitol 35.56%, GNPC 20%. First oil was achieved in May 2017, three months ahead of schedule. With the completion of the OCTP gas facilities, OCTP overall oil and gas production can reach up to 85,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day once the gas and condensate production has been fully ramped up. The project benefits from the support of IFC and MIGA, part of the World Bank Group and UK Export Finance".

It is estimated that the project will generate $7.9 billion of investment in Ghana over its full life, with 320 contracts already awarded to Ghanaian companies valued at $1.8billion.