Explorco, the exploration arm of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), is set to begin onshore drilling in the Voltaian Basin before the end of 2026.
This is part of efforts to explore oil reserves in an area identified as having significant petroleum potential.
President John Mahama stated this while delivering the Keynote Address at a ceremony to cut the sod for Phase II of the Sentuo Oil Refinery Project.
The President said the expansion will increase the refinery’s production capacity from 40,000 to 100,000 barrels per day.
“So far, all our discoveries have been offshore- in the sea. We’ve discovered a lot of potential onshore, and so GNPC is going to, through ExplorCo, start drilling wells to explore that oil before the end of this year.
Ladies and gentlemen, our objective is clear. We’re building an energy sector that is productive, competitive, resilient, and globally relevant. That vision lies at the heart of what we have called the Accra Reset,” he said.
President Mahama added that, “The reset is about repositioning Ghana from a nation that primarily exports raw materials to one that processes, manufactures, refines, and creates value within its own borders. It’s about ensuring that a greater share of the wealth generated from our natural resources remain in Ghana to create jobs, support businesses, build industries, and improve livelihoods.”
According to him, whether it is crude oil, gold, bauxite, lithium, cocoa, or any agricultural produce, the future belongs to nations that move beyond the export of raw materials and embrace value addition.
“The future belongs to nations that refine, manufacture, and export their finished products. And this is why the expansion of Sentuo Refinery is so important. It represents precisely the kind of investment Ghana needs at this stage of our development. It strengthens our industrial base, it deepens our energy value chains, it creates employment opportunities, it supports local industries, and it advances our broader objective of transforming Ghana into a modern industrial economy,” President Mahama noted.
