GNPC Explorco begins Voltaian Basin exploration next year - Ya-Na pledges support
GNPC Explorco, the upstream oil and gas exploration subsidiary of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), is set to commence exploratory activities in the Voltaian Basin to unearth the country’s onshore hydrocarbon potential.
The Managing Director of Explorco, Samuel Opoku Arthur, who made this known during a courtesy call on Ya-Na Abukari II at the Gbewaa Palace in Yendi, said as the company prepared to explore the basin, it was important to update the Overlord and the kingdom on the next phase of its exploration campaign towards commercial onshore discovery.
The stakeholders in the sector, he said, were important to the success of the exploration activities, and that is why the leadership of the company had to visit the Ya-Na to engage and have the blessing of Dagbon.
Visit
He said the visit to the palace was also to introduce the board and management of Explorco to the Overlord and to inform him that Explorco would be leading exploration activities in the Voltaian Basin.
The Explorco delegation included the Board Chairman, Dr Aaron Issa Anafure; two board members, Benjamin Narteh Ayiku and Stella Bondzie, and the Deputy Managing Director (Technical), Iddris Abukari Abdul-Mumin.
Basin
The Voltaian Basin is a large geological feature covering about 40 per cent of Ghana and stretching into Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso.
It is a sedimentary basin with significant petroleum potential and geological resources, and it forms the majority of the larger Volta River basin, a trans-national catchment area in West Africa.
In Ghana, the Voltaian Basin spans about 460 communities in 13 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), with 10 of the communities in the Northern Region and three in the Savannah Region.
Stakeholder engagements
Mr Arthur said the engagement by the company with stakeholders, especially the Palace, formed a very important part of the process.
He recalled the announcement by President John Dramani Mahama at the just-ended Africa Oil Week that GNPC and GNPC Explorco were inching closer to drilling two exploration wells by next year.
Mr Arthur gave an assurance that Explorco, a wholly owned subsidiary of GNPC, would operate with growing technical capability, fiscal discipline and vision to drive the nation’s upstream petroleum ambitions by leveraging exploration and production expertise.
For his part, the overlord of Dagbon welcomed the initiative by GNPC Explorco and expressed the hope that the company would hit oil in commercial quantities as it began its next phase of exploration activities in the basin.
“With your commitment shown by the management team and board, your attempt to uncover hydrocarbons in commercial quantities in Northern Ghana will be a reality and a move that will be the game-changer, especially for the people of the north,” Ya-Na Abukari stated.
For generations, “our region has been blessed with agricultural abundance, rich cultural heritage, and the prospect that we might also be blessed with oil reserves underground adds a new chapter to our story of resource endowment," the Ya-Na said.
He expressed the gratitude of the people of Dagbon for the visit by the board and management of Explorco to the palace.
New Explorco
The Board Chairman assured the people of Dagbon that the board was bent on ensuring the exploration activities were successful and achieved the desired results for national development.
The Board Chairman also assured Ya-Na Abukari that the company was committed to the cause and would do everything possible to achieve its mandate as a lead exploration and production company within the onshore space.
He called for a solid partnership between the company and its stakeholders, the kingdom and the people of the Northern Region.
