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Aker Energy, a Norwegian oil and gas company, announced on Thursday that it has discovered oil in commercial quantity off the Ghanaian coast. It estimates that the discovery is up to 550 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe).

The discovery was made at the company’s Pecan field, which is about 116 kilometres southwest of Takoradi in western Ghana.

“We are pleased to announce the well results, confirming our understanding of the area, as well as the resource base and upside potential in the DWT/CTP (Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points) block,” said Jan Arve Haugan, CEO of Aker Energy. “Our most important priority going forward is to deliver a robust field development plan to the Ghanaian authorities.”

Aker Energy was established in 2018 with offices in Oslo, Norway and Accra, Ghana. It aims to become the offshore oil and gas operator of choice in Ghana. The company said with the next two appraisal wells to be drilled, total volumes to be included in a Plan of Development could increase to between 600 and 1,000 mmboe.

“Aker Energy sees great potential in this promising area offshore Ghana,” Arve Huagan said. “Since we became the operator less than a year ago, we have established an open, inclusive and transparent collaboration with Ghanaian authorities. This partnership will enable us to unlock the vast potential in the area to the benefit of both the Ghanaian society and our license partners”

Aker Energy operates the DWT/CTP block with a 50 percent participating interest and its partners are Russian multinational energy corporation LUKOIL (38 percent), the Ghanaian National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) (10 percent) and Fueltrade Limited (2 percent).

Ghana’s first discovered oil in 2007 in the west of Cape Three Points and became a producer in 2010. It is believed to have up to seven billion barrels of oil in reserves.

Ghana's GDP growth rate more than doubled in 2017, expanding to 8.5 percent, as the country's oil and gas output also rose 80.4 percent, according to offical statistics. Q3 2018 GDP growth rate was 7.4 percent.  

Other oil companies operating in Ghana include Exxon, Eni, Anadarko, and Tullow Oil.