Adnan Adams Mohammed
Ghana exceeded its petroleum receipts target for 2024 by a whopping 32.4% as reported by the Finance Minister in Parliament, last week.
Receipts from upstream oil and gas activities amounted to GH¢19,834 million (1.7% of GDP), exceeding the target of GH¢14,978 million (1.5% of GDP) to show an excess revenue of GH¢4,856 million (32.4% above target).
The excess receipts were primarily driven by higher-than-programmed crude oil
prices which averaged US$80.04 per barrel compared to a target of US$75.44 per barrel and higher volumes, the minister noted.
These were realized from a total crude oil production for Ghana and its partners in 2024 of 48.24 million barrels. Of the 48.24 million barrels, Greater Jubilee’s output was 31.85 million barrels, Tweneboa Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) was 6.78 million barrels, and Sankofa-Gye Nyame (SGN) was 9.61 million barrels, representing 66.02%, 14.06% and 19.91% of the total output respectively.
“Mr Speaker, the 2024 crude oil production of 48.24 million barrels is 0.02 % lower than the 2023 levels of 48.25 million barrels and 5.9% lower than the 2024 benchmark crude oil of 51.25 million barrels”, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson clarified to Parliament during the 2025 budget presentation.
“The marginal reduction in crude oil output is generally due to increasing gas to oil ratio, high water production in the Jubilee and TEN fields, as well as scale formation in several wells in the Sankofa field.”
Out of the total crude oil production of 48.24 million, Ghana National Petroleum
Corporation (GNPC), on behalf of the State, lifted 8.55 million barrels. The liftings by GNPC included 5.72 million barrels from the Jubilee, 0.99 million barrels from TEN, and1.83 million barrels from Sankofa Gye Nyame (SGN).
Also, a total of 280,441 MMScf of gas was produced in 2024 from the three producing fields, namely, Sankofa Gye-Nyame, Jubilee and TEN fields. Of the total gas produced, 115,455 MMScf was delivered for power generation and non-power gas users. Of the 115,455 MMScf, total, 81,795 MMScf of gas was transported from the SGN Field to power producers via the Onshore Receiving Facility (ORF) for power generation. Similarly, 32,798 MMScf was transported from the Greater Jubilee field whiles 862 MMScf was transported from the TEN Field.
Meanwhile, receipts from crude oil liftings only for the period January to December
2024 amounted to US$843.52 million (GH¢12.4 billion), comprising the 75th – 80th Jubilee liftings, the 23rd & 24th TEN liftings, and the 14th and 16th liftings from the Sankofa Gye-Nyame field.
Total petroleum receipts from all sources (i.e., proceeds from crude oil liftings and other petroleum receipts) into the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF) for
January to December 2024 amounted to US$1.4 billion (GH¢20.0 billion).
The 2024 petroleum receipts from all sources, amounting to US$1.4 billion, is 27.81% higher than the 2023 actual receipts of US$1.1 billion, and 26.62% higher than the 2024 projected receipts. The increase in the receipts was mainly on account of higher number of liftings received (11 liftings) in 2024 compared to 9 liftings for the same period in 2023, and an increase in Corporate Income Tax (CIT).
“An analysis of petroleum receipts revealed that Carried and Participating Interest (CAPI) contributed the highest (44.5%) to total petroleum receipts for the period, followed by Corporate Income Tax (37%) and Royalties (17.7%), Surface Rental, PHF income and Interest on late payment contributed 0.8% to petroleum receipts for the period under review”, Dr Ato Forson said.
Furtherance to the above, the Section 4 of the Petroleum Revenue Management (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act 893) requires that not more than 70% of the Benchmark Revenue shall be paid into the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and not less than 30% shall be paid into the Ghana Petroleum Funds (GPFs). Of the amount transferred into the GPFs, the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF) shall receive not less than 30%, with the rest transferred into the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF). The 2024 petroleum receipts were, thus, distributed based on the provisions of the PRMA as indicated.
The total petroleum receipts distributed were US$1.4 billion from the 2024
total receipts of US$1.4 billion and US$0.29 million from undistributed petroleum receipts from 2023.
Of the amount of US$1.4 billion distributed, the National Oil Company (GNPC) received a total of US$280.59 million, made up of Equity Financing Cost of US$138.41 million and GNPC’s share of the net Carried and Participating Interest (CAPI) of US$142.89 million.
The ABFA received a total of US$493.25 million to support the Budget, while the GPFs received US$584.25 million, in accordance with the PRMA, with the GSF receiving US$408.97 million and the GHF US$175.27 million. Of the ABFA receipt of US$493.25 million, US$24.66 million was transferred to the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), US$69.06 million to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) for Agenda 111 projects and US$98.50 million to GIIF SPV Equity Viability Gap Account for the Tema Motorway Extension project.
The Net ABFA after these transfers came to US$301.03 million.
