The Springfield Group, a local energy company in Ghana, boasts of discovering oil where former US company Kosmos Energy couldn’t find oil after years of drilling. The company claimed to discover two oil sources within 40 days with a total capacity of 1.2 billion barrels of crude oil. From this source, 250,000 barrels of oil could be drilled per day, the Financial Times revealed.
Springfield was never known for oil exploration and had never done this before. However, CEO Kevin Okyere said large oil reserves, found off the coast of Ghana, could be larger than that of Jubilee Field, Ghana’s largest oil field. Tullow Oil, a UK company, operate jubilee, but Texas-based Kosmos discovered the oil field in 2007. Kosmos discovery of Jubilee got the company listed on both New York and London stock exchanges.
Okyere said his company is the first indigenous company in Africa to discover oil in deep waters without support from any foreign organization.
“We are the first African company to drill in deep water and to find oil,” Kevin Okyere said. “Nigeria has had oil for a long time, and no indigenous company there has ever done this.”
A former telecoms entrepreneur, both Okyere and Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, will announce the oil field discovery to the general public at a date to be announced soon. Although Okyere reveled that the discovery is now “a matter of national pride”, the Ghanaian government owns an 18% stake in the oil block.
Apart from the commercial quantities of oil discovered, of which 30-35% of the 1.2 billion proven reserves are recoverable, Springfield also found a mass reserve of gas.
Lennert Koch, a principal sub-Saharan analyst at Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultant, said Springfield would require the help of technical and financial partners to drill the oil field. He said he is not sure whether Ghana can utilize more gas.
The oil block was first awarded to Kosmos by the Ghanaian government in 2016, but after years of drilling without discovering oil, the Texas company returned the field to the government following some drawn-out arguments. The government gave the block to Springfield free of charge, even though the though disclosed over $100 million had been investing in exploring and drilling activities.
Okyere expressed joy that his company was able to obtain oil – displaying a small jar containing “extremely light” crude oil – where Kosmos, who is a globally recognized oil company reputable for discovering oil, had earlier failed. He revealed that the oil was obtained at a depth of 3,323m in waters about 1,000m deep. He added that his company is already discussing with potential partners and expressed hopes that Springfield may even soon be listed on the London or New York stock exchange to raise capital for oil exploration.
