…As Energy Ministry, Petroleum Commission & Eni leave many uncertain
In 2019, the media landscape, was abuzz with high expectations surrounding a significant oil discovery by an indigenous Ghanaian company.
Springfield, a local oil company, made a discovery initially hailed as potentially transformative—an African oil giant in the making.
Media outlets were quick to speculate, with headlines such as “Springfield set to reveal offshore discovery bigger than Jubilee” published by Africa Energy.
The Financial Times, quoted sources stating, “Springfield will, in the coming days, announce that it has made two offshore discoveries off the coast of Ghana, totaling 1.2 billion barrels of crude.”
The African Energy Chamber, expressed its excitement, stating, “Not only does this represent the first deep-water oil discovery by an African oil company, but it could also surpass the Jubilee Field, which remains the largest oilfield in Ghana.”
These statements, which preceded the official announcement, were unusually optimistic. When Springfield officially revealed the discovery, it made bold claims: “Afina-1, located at a water depth of 1,030 meters, was drilled to a total depth of 4,085 meters. The well encountered light oil with a gross thickness of 65 meters, including 50 meters of net oil pay in high-quality Cenomanian sandstones. The secondary target in Turonian-age sands, drilled at the edge of the structure, encountered 10 meters of hydrocarbon-bearing sands containing light oil and gas.”
Springfield, further stated that its discovered oil in place had more than 1.5 billion barrels, with an additional 0.7 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas.
The company, also projected the block’s undiscovered potential to exceed 3 billion barrels of oil and gas, spread across multiple leads and prospects within the proven reservoir units.
Following the announcement, controversies arose regarding the potential connectivity of Springfield’s discovery with the existing OCTP (Oil and Gas Development) field. The Ministry of Energy, siding with Springfield, demanded that the company justify its claims of connectivity, rather than acquiescing to requests from the OCTP partners. Springfield, however, repeatedly declined to provide the source data to OCTP partners for review. When Springfield finally agreed to release the data, an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) was signed between the parties. Upon reviewing the data, the OCTP partners concluded that their analysis contradicted Springfield’s and the government’s stance.
Simultaneously, Springfield refused to release an independent assessment of its discovery conducted by Gaffney Cline & Associates, which led to legal action. Eni, an OCTP partner, filed a lawsuit in U.S. courts against Gaffney Cline to compel the release of the data. When the data was eventually made available, it cast further doubt on Springfield’s claims. Gaffney Cline’s analysis suggested that additional work was needed to establish the commercial viability and connectivity of the discovery.
After two years of unsuccessful attempts to convince Eni and its partners, and following several local court rulings that supported Springfield’s position, the OCTP partners took the case to the International Court of Arbitration. In July 2024, the court ruled that the Ghanaian government had acted improperly in its unitization directive, effectively nullifying the government’s stance on the matter.
Given the past controversies surrounding data integrity, Springfield’s recent announcement has failed to generate significant industry enthusiasm. At the Petroleum Commission and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), key contacts for The Herald have shown little excitement regarding the announcement. Other analysts in civil society are awaiting official communication from the Petroleum Commission and GNPC.
Bright Simon, Honorary Vice President of Imani, posted on X (formerly Twitter): “We have information from the Petroleum Commission, but we are still waiting for statements from GNPC and Explorco. As Ghana contributes public funds to these activities, there is a public right to access technical information. So far, none has been provided. We do not comment on corporate PR.”
Ben Boakye, Executive Director of the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), also commented on X: “Now, the Petroleum Commission and the government, have a second opportunity to assess what Springfield has presented. We can afford to be patient and await the PC’s analysis of the results from the re-entry exercise, comparing them with broader industry intelligence and best practices.”
In the same post, Mr Boakye, hinted at his initial disillusionment with the 2019 announcement, which ultimately led to the arbitration proceedings.
Whatever the Petroleum Commission’s conclusion may be, experts suggest that Springfield has yet to provide clarity on the key aspects of the discovery—specifically, the determination of commerciality through the identification of the discovery’s full depth and lateral extent, as well as the technological solutions needed to ensure economic viability.
The recent announcement, repeats the data points provided in the 2019 statement. Curiously also, Springfield provides a maximum flow rate of 4,500 barrels per day without insight into the average data points expected to be lower than the Maximum.
