Ghana Identifies Over 1 Billion Barrels of Oil, 2.5 Trillion Cubic Feet Of Gas in Tano Basin

• Ghana National Petroleum Corporation used Geographic Information Systems to map stranded resources across the Tano Basin
• GNPC identified over 1 billion barrels of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas that could boost the country's declining production
• A hub-based development approach supported by GIS data could significantly cut the capital expenditure required to unlock the resources

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The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has revealed that spatial data analysis through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) could unlock more than one billion barrels of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas from stranded resources in the Tano Basin, offering a potential path out of the country's declining oil output.

The findings emerged from work GNPC has been conducting to determine how existing petroleum infrastructure could be used to develop resources that would otherwise be commercially unviable as standalone projects.

Emmanuel Boadum Donkor, a Senior Geomatic Engineer at GNPC, disclosed the figures while speaking to Citi Business News on the sidelines of the Esri User Conference West Africa 2026, an event hosted by Sambus Geospatial Limited.

"With only the Tano Basin that we have done the analysis around, we have been able to identify over 1 billion barrels of oil that we can actually potentially add to our production rate and about 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas that we can actually add to our current production to boost it," he said.

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Donkor explained that the scale of capital expenditure involved in developing each stranded resource independently makes doing so difficult to justify, but that a hub-based model changes that calculation significantly.

"If you take up the CAPEX in terms of developing the infrastructure to extract these stranded resources independently, if you compare it to doing it in the hub way which we are seeking to do, you realise that it brings down the cost of investment and then it actually boosts our confidence to be able to extract these stranded resources," he said.

Location Data at the Core of GNPC Operations

Donkor noted that GIS has become central to how GNPC processes and acts on its data, with approximately 80% of the corporation's information carrying location attributes.

"At GNPC it is a very significant part of us, as our data contains about 80% location information, and that tells you how significant positioning is to our industry," he stated.

He added that GIS tools allow GNPC to layer data on wells, pipelines, roads, settlements, farmland and environmentally sensitive zones when planning infrastructure decisions, helping to minimise potential disruption while identifying the most efficient development routes.

The hub-based approach would allow Ghana to draw on infrastructure already in place rather than constructing separate facilities for each isolated deposit, which Donkor said is key to making marginal fields attractive to investment.

He indicated that the next phase of the process will hinge on reaching agreement on how the identified opportunities can be practically implemented.

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Source: YEN.com.gh