Ghana approves development plan for offshore project involving Lukoil

MOSCOW. July 4 (Interfax) -Ghana has approved a Plan of Development (PoD) for the Deepwater Tano/Cape Three Point (DWT/CTP) block, which includes the Pecan field, project operator Pecan Energies said.

The new owner of Pecan Energies, African Financial Corporation (AFC), through its wholly owned subsidiary AFC Equity Investment Ltd (AFCEI), will now work towards a Final Investment Decision (FID).

The Pecan field will be developed in two stages with a capex of $3.5 billion. In total, it is estimated that all discoveries in the DWT/CTP contract area have a recoverable resource potential of 550 million barrels.

The main Pecan field, located in ultra-deep waters ranging from 2,400 to 2,700 meters about 115 kilometer offshore Ghana, will be developed with a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel and a subsea production system (SPS).

Aker Energy AS submitted a revised PoD for the DWT/CTP block in the middle of April. On the day the plan was submitted, AFC, the African Financial Corporation, agreed to acquire Aker Energy. Aker Capital AS, 100% owned by Aker ASA, and The Resource Group TRG AS agreed to sell their shares in Aker Energy to AFC Equity Investment Ltd, an AFC business entity. As a result of the deal, AFC became the sole shareholder in Aker Energy and holder of a 50% stake in DWT/CTP. Lukoil Overseas Ghana Tano Limited owns 38%; Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has 10% and Fueltrade Limited has 2%.

Previously, AFC invested $200 million in senior bonds to develop the DWT/CTP block.

AFC is a pan-African multilateral development finance institution established in 2007 by African governments to provide a solution to the infrastructure shortage on the continent through the provision of debt and equity financing. AFC's loan and investment portfolio is valued at $10.5 billion. Ghana became AFC's sovereign shareholder in 2018.

Lukoil joined the DWT/CTP project in March 2014. The Tano block covers an area of just over 2,000 square km and is located in the western part of Ghana's waters in the Gulf of Guinea, 80 km off the coast of Cameroon. The sea depth within the block varies from 1,600 to 3,000 meters. Seven deposits, five oil and two gas, have been discovered there.

The Pecan field is one of the deepest deposits in the world. Total reserves are estimated at 334 million barrels of oil, with a production plateau of 110,000 barrels of oil per day. Production is expected to last more than 25 years.