Ghana has moved to reset its upstream sector, resolving disputes with oil and gas operators and securing US$3.5bn in pledges that position the country as a renewed growth story anchored in gas and regulatory reform.
Licences extended, gas price cut, capital returns to Jubilee and TEN
The Petroleum Commission has confirmed that all outstanding disputes between the state and upstream operators have been settled. This clears a key obstacle to new field spending. Acting chief executive Victoria Emeafa Hardcastle announced that two investment commitments totalling about US$3.5bn are now in place for the Jubilee, TEN and Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) projects.
Under a memorandum of understanding covering Jubilee and TEN, partners Tullow Oil, Kosmos Energy, PetroSA and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) have agreed to invest up to US$2bn in further field development. The plan centres on new wells and associated infrastructure to sustain oil output and raise associated gas supply. Tullow, which operates both fields, has already secured licence extensions for Jubilee and TEN to 2040, giving the consortium a longer runway to recover incremental capital spending.
Hardcastle said the Jubilee package includes an 18% cut in the gas price paid by the state. The Petroleum Commission and finance officials estimate this will save Ghana about US$300m over the life of the agreement. The government expects lower gas input costs to ease power sector pressures and improve the credit profile of state off-takers. An editorial in the state-owned Daily Graphic noted that the US$2bn Jubilee–TEN commitment is designed to sustain oil production, increase gas output and deliver these gas price savings.
The shift comes after several years of falling volumes. Data from the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), cited by national media, show crude output declining from a peak of 71.44m barrels in 2019 to 37.3m barrels in 2025 — the sixth straight annual fall. However, officials now say production has rebounded to about 126,000 barrels per day in 2026, up from roughly 90,000 barrels per day at the start of the year, helped by higher Jubilee output. As one Accra-based energy analyst put it, Ghana’s upstream sector is shifting from managing decline to managing a cautious recovery.
Eban-Akoma and OCTP: gas-led growth and regulatory reset
The second leg of the new package targets gas-led growth. Hardcastle confirmed that the OCTP consortium, comprising Eni, Vitol and GNPC, has pledged around US$1.5bn to expand gas exports and develop the Eban-Akoma discoveries offshore Ghana. The partners declared Eban-Akoma commercially viable in mid-2025. They estimate recoverable resources at roughly 500m–700m barrels of oil equivalent, according to company and government disclosures.
Government documents and law-firm briefings on Ghana’s 2026 mid-year fiscal review state that the US$3.5bn of commitments from Jubilee and OCTP partners are expected to finance additional drilling and raise gas exports towards 350m standard cubic feet per day. The OCTP investment is structured to lift output from the Sankofa-Gye Nyame hub and tie in Eban-Akoma, strengthening fuel supply to gas-fired power plants and supporting industrial users. Officials frame this as an energy security measure as well as an export opportunity.
For now, both the Jubilee–TEN and OCTP packages sit at memorandum of understanding stage rather than final investment decision. Their execution will depend on completion of technical work, financing and regulatory processes. This includes Parliament’s review of expected amendments to the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act and changes to individual petroleum agreements. The government has already backed licence extensions and is signalling more predictable contract terms, including clearer rules on GNPC’s future participating interests and pricing frameworks for domestic gas.
What does the deal mean for investors?
This mix of dispute resolution, licence clarity and pricing reform is central to the policy narrative. The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, has repeatedly linked the US$2bn Jubilee deal and the US$1.5bn Eni-led OCTP agreement to a broader agenda to strengthen Ghana’s upstream sector and reverse years of under-investment. Legal and investor briefings emphasise that restoring confidence after legacy disputes is critical if Ghana is to secure drilling beyond the current projects and attract new entrants to frontier basins.
Meanwhile, earlier talks between Petrobras and Ghana on the Keta Basin had already signalled growing international appetite for Ghana’s offshore frontier acreage, reinforcing the broader investment momentum now materialising in the Jubilee and OCTP commitments.
For institutional investors, the message is clear: Ghana oil investment is again backed by visible project pipelines, improving production data and a state willing to trade near-term gas price cuts for longer-term energy security and reserves monetisation. The next signals to watch will be conversion of the MOUs into binding investment decisions, the passage and content of the petroleum law amendments, and whether the reported production rebound can hold as new wells come on stream.
Quick answers
Ghana has secured US$3.5bn in total commitments: US$2bn from the Jubilee–TEN consortium led by Tullow Oil, and US$1.5bn from the OCTP consortium comprising Eni, Vitol and GNPC.
Eban-Akoma is an offshore Ghana discovery declared commercially viable in mid-2025, with estimated recoverable resources of 500m–700m barrels of oil equivalent; it forms the core of the US$1.5bn OCTP expansion plan.
According to PIAC data, Ghana’s crude output fell from a peak of 71.44m barrels in 2019 to 37.3m barrels in 2025; however, officials report production has rebounded to approximately 126,000 barrels per day in 2026, up from around 90,000 barrels per day at the start of the year.
