The Chief Executive Officer of Tullow Oil, Mr Rahul Dhir, has predicted that oil and gas will remain an integral part of the global economy, including Ghana’s, for some time to come.

That confidence comes in the wake of what he described as ‘a stark comment’ by the International Energy Agency (IEA) for the cessation of new investments in fossil fuel exploration, saying Tullow does not agree with the proposal.

Addressing a press conference in Accra last Thursday, to provide detail of Tullow’s Value Maximisation Plan, including the company’s own Net Zero projections to eliminate emissions, Mr Dhir expressed high optimism in the outcomes of the company’s investments in the country, and the benefits accruing for the country, the company and the industry at large.

“Our relationship with the government has been very good. We are appreciative of the support that we’ve received. We are going through this pandemic and I have to say that production in Ghana in the midst of the pandemic has been mitigated largely because of the support we’ve had from the government,” he said.

“Sometimes people look at the oil price and it’s about $60 or it’s about $70 depending on the day you look at it. That really masks what I call the ominous undercurrents,” he said, pointing out that Tullow did not intend to reduce its operations in Ghana as others had resorted to.

Tullow in 2020

Describing 2020 as a year of significant change in the operations of Tullow Oil, he said the company achieved operational turnaround from focus on asset integrity, process safety, maintenance and reliability, underpinned by increased gas offtake of 135mmscfd or about 40 per cent of Ghana's gas requirement, increased water injection, close co-operation with the Government of Ghana to manage COVID-19 impacts, improved facilities uptime of 98 per cent, and cost control.

He said going forward, and from a Ghana perspective, the oil and gas industry remained an important engine for the development of oil producing countries.

Mr Dhir described Tullow’s recent successful $1.8bn bond offering as a validation of its strategic focus and also a strong endorsement of Ghana as a leading investment destination in Africa, explaining that if anyone invested in Tullow, they really were also investing in Ghana.

Ghana’s Value Maximisation Plan

Under its Ghana Value Maximisation Plan, a 10-year development plan, Tullow plans to invest about $4.2 billion into its operations in Ghana, and ensure local businesses derive maximum value from the Jubilee and TEN fields operations.

Asked if Tullow was not overly confident of the prospects from the Jubilee and TEN fields, the CEO said the deposits were world-class assets uncommon anywhere, and precisely a find any investor anywhere in the world would seek.

“You’ve heard the names Jubilee and TEN, these are big fields, and just to give you a sense of perspective… TEN has about a billion barrels… Jubilee has about nearly two billion barrels, that is three billion barrels total across those fields, … of the three billion barrels in oil, we’ve produced 400 million barrels, so the quiz question is, if I produce 400 hundred million of three billion, I have left 3.6 billion, that is still a lot of work, it’s a big number. So we’ve only produced in Jubilee about 16 per cent of the oil there.”