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Ghana's Upstream Recovery and Downstream Expansion Converge at AEW 2026
Ghana has scaled its oil production to 126,000 barrels per day, but refines only about 13% of the fuel it consumes, spending roughly $3 billion a year on petroleum imports. Closing that gap is the goal of a special session during African Energy Week (AEW) 2026, titled “Invest in Ghana: Scaling from Extraction to Production to meet National Energy Ambitions.” The session will examine what investment enablers and policy alignments can move Ghana towards its energy goals, and establish the competitive West African producer as a full value-chain player.
The country’s upstream context is the most encouraging it has been in years. Production has climbed from roughly 90,000 bpd to its current level after the government secured $3.5 billion in new investment commitments from Jubilee Partners and Eni. The Greater Jubilee Plan of Further Development, backed by approximately $2 billion, will fund up to 20 additional wells across the Jubilee and TEN fields. A separate $1.5 billion agreement with Eni's OCTP partners covers the Eban-Akoma discoveries and a gas infrastructure upgrade targeting an additional 350 million cubic feet per day of supply by 2028.
The government is also overhauling the laws and regulations governing the upstream sector to sharpen Ghana's competitiveness for new capital, with five new petroleum agreements expected before year-end.
The AEW session will give significant weight to the downstream buildout Ghana needs to capture more value from its barrels. The Petroleum Hub Development Corporation (PHDC) is advancing West Africa's first integrated petroleum hub at Jomoro comprising a 300,000 bpd refinery, a 90,000 bpd petrochemical plant and marine port infrastructure. Energy Minister John Jinapor announced in July that an agreement for the project to proceed is close to being signed.
Alongside the hub, the privately owned Sentuo Oil Refinery is expanding from 40,000 bpd to 100,000 bpd, backed by a $200 million loan coordinated by Ecobank Ghana. The Tema Oil Refinery has also begun processing Jubilee crude domestically. The government has set a target of meeting 70% of national fuel demand from local refining.
Domestic gas supply underpins both the upstream and downstream ambitions, but resources are tightening. The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) projects demand will reach 840 million cubic feet per day by 2030 – well above current output – and the government is investing in new processing capacity to close the shortfall. The Invest in Ghana session will examine how gas infrastructure investment can sustain power generation while feeding the refining and petrochemical facilities now under development.
“Ghana has spent 15 years exporting crude and importing fuel. Its upstream recovery opens a window to change the conversation, and investors at AEW will want to see how the regulatory reforms help keep the downstream capital flowing,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber.
The Invest in Ghana session takes place as part of African Energy Week 2026, October 12-16 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. To find out more and register, visit www.aecweek-registration.com/2026.