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Total has pulled out of a deal to take over Anadarko Petroleum Corporation’s Ghana assets after the US independent’s new owner Occidental Petroleum Corporation sought to sell its African holdings. The move, announced by Total on 18 May, follows the French major’s announcement that it would not be taking over Anadarko assets in Algeria’s producing Berkine Basin, another of the four deals included under the purchase and sale agreement (PSA) signed in August 2019.

Energy minister John Peter Amewu has written to Eni Ghana and local explorer Springfield E&P directing them to hold talks on unitisation of their Sankofa and Afina fields. Citing what it said was technical evidence that the reservoir straddles both blocks, the 9 April letter said the companies should hold talks within 30 days on a process leading to the joint operation of the two fields and gave them 120 days to provide the ministry with a draft agreement.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 13 April charged the managing director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) with orchestrating a bribery scheme to help a client win a power plant contract in Ghana. The SEC alleges that US-Ghanaian citizen Asante Berko – a former Goldman Sachs employee who was appointed TOR managing director in January 2020 – violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by arranging for his firm’s client, a Turkish energy company, to funnel at least $2.5m to a Ghana- based intermediary to bribe government officials in order to win an electrical power plant project.

Aker Energy Ghana issued a letter of intent (LoI) on 20 February to Yinson Production West Africa and its related companies for a FPSO for the Pecan field development. The LoI is for a bareboat charter agreement with FPSO owner Yinson Gazania Production Ltd (YGPL) and an operation and maintenance agreement with Yinson Gazania Operations Ltd for an initial ten years, extendable to 15 years.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the construction of two solar power plants totalling 17MWp at Kaleo and Lawra in the Upper West Region on 4 February. The projects are being developed by the Volta River Authority with €22.8m ($25m) of funding from Germany’s KfW.A presidency statement said the 13MWp plant in Kaleo was due for completion by December, while the 4MWp project in Lawra would be completed in June. The projects, the first grid-connected solar power plants in the Upper West Region, will supply enough power for 32,000 households.

Aker Energy has given Fugro a contract for geotechnical and geophysical surveys over the Pecan field on the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points Block. The surveys will obtain seabed and sub-seabed information to facilitate the planning and emplacement of the Pecan subsea infrastructure and FPSO, Fugro said. Aker Energy decided in October to change its strategy after failing to win approval for a plan for development and operations (PDO) covering the full Greater Pecan area.

Beleaguered Tullow Oil said on 15 January it expects to report pre-tax impairments and exploration write-offs of about $1.5bn in its 2019 results in March, mainly due to a $10 reduction in the group’s long-term accounting oil price assumption to $65/barrel and a reduction in 2P reserves at the TEN development in Ghana.Chief financial officer Les Wood told a conference call with analysts the $1.5bn was made up of $700m of impairments, for the oil price and reduction in the Enyenra field reserves, plus $800m of exploration writeoffs, notably for recent wells offshore Guyana.

Genser Energy Ghana Ltd announced in December that it had reached financial close on a $366m financing agreement that will fund the expansion of its business in Ghana. The transaction funds the expansion of existing plants and the company’s gas pipeline network, as well as new projects that have signed power purchase agreements.The package comprises a $230m syndicated loan alongside a mezzanine loan and preference shares. South Africa’s Standard Bank and Nedbank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and existing lender Barak Fund SPC Ltd financed the senior loan.

Construction of the Pwalugu multipurpose dam in northern Ghana was launched on 29 November at a ceremony attended by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The $933m project is being built by China’s Sinohydro for the Volta River Authority (VRA) on the White Volta River on the boundary of the Upper East and North East regions. The project includes a dam with an elevation of 165 metres impounding a 350km2 reservoir, with an associated 60MW hydropower plant and a 50MW solar PV plant.

Genser Energy Ghana Limited on 6 December announced financial close for a $366m funding package including a new syndicated senior loan facility of $230m, a mezzanine loan and preference shares, described as one of the largest financings for a Ghanaian private company in international markets. Genser provides distributed power generation to industrial and mining companies including Gold Fields Ghana Limited, Kinross Gold Corporation and, more recently, Perseus Mining Limited and Golden Star Resources.

African oil industry grandee Samuel Dossou-Aworet has built a 7.06% stake in Tullow Oil following the collapse in the company’s share price. Tullow shares lost around two thirds of their value after the company on 9 December cut its Ghana production forecast and announced the departure of chief executive Paul McDade and exploration director Angus McCoss.

Springfield Exploration and Production has announced that the Afina-1 well on West Cape Three Points Block 2 contains 1.5bn barrels of oil in place and 0.7tcf of gas. Afina-1, which is located at a water depth of 1,030 metres, was drilled to a total depth of 4,085 metres and encountered light oil with a gross thickness of 65 metres, with 50 metres of net light oil pay in good quality Cenomanian sandstones.

The confusion in Ghana’s energy sector has claimed another victim, with Tullow Oil slashing its production forecast, citing lower-than-expected gas offtake. Tullow had already cut its 2019 production forecast in July and again in November, but announced on 9 December that output would be just 70,000-80,000 b/d in 2020 and around 70,000 in 2021-23, down from 87,000 b/d this year. Chief executive Paul McDade and exploration director Angus McCoss resigned “by mutual agreement and with immediate effect”.

Ghanaian independent Springfield E&P has announced a “very significant discovery” with the Afina-1x deep-water well on West Cape Three Points Block 2 in the Tano Basin. “The management of Springfield E&P, the first independent African energy company to drill in deep water, will announce the outcome of the Afina-1x discovery together with its partners, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the government of Ghana in due course,” the company said.

The Bui Power Authority (BPA) has completed work on Ghana’s first micro-hydropower plant. The 45kW Tsatsadu Generating Station in the Hohoe District, in the country’s south-eastern region of Volta, was developed under the Ministry of Energy’s renewable energy initiative. The run-of-river project, which could be expanded with the addition of another 45kW turbine, is expected to be the first in a series of small hydropower stations planned across the country by the ministry in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).