Ghana’s state-owned Petroleum Hub Development Corp. (PHDC) and a consortium of private-sector partners have formally broken ground on the first phase of the country’s first integrated downstream petroleum hub
- The government hopes the 300,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery will turn the country into the region’s petroleum hub
- Ghana became an oil producer in 2010, and its output is currently around 132,000 barrels per day of crude oil and about 325 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas.
- The refinery is part of a project that will be developed in three phases – with the first phase estimated to cost about US$12 billion – featuring the 300,000 bpd refinery, a petrochemical plant and storage and port facilities.
According to President Nana Akufo-Addo, the petroleum hub is estimated to create approximately 780,000 direct and indirect jobs, stimulate local economic development, and elevate Ghana’s standing as a key player in Africa’s energy sector.
Phase one of the project, estimated to cost US$12 billion, will be funded and constructed by a consortium of Touchstone Capital Group Holdings, UIC Energy Ghana, China Wuhan Engineering Co., and China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co.
The petroleum hub aims to supply enough refined and by-products to supply the region by 2036, according to an agreement signed in June 2018.
In tandem with formal groundbreaking, Akufo-Addo also announced Ghana’s Ministry of Finance has allocated 200 million cedis (about US$12.8 million) as land compensation for affected communities within the Jomoro district in gratitude to tribal chiefs and peoples within those areas offering their lands for the hub’s construction.
Phase 1 of the PHDC hub will be situated across 6,590.8 acres abutting the Gulf of Guinea located within the southern section of a total 20,000-acre tract of land PHDC acquired for the entire hub’s development in the Jomoro municipal district, according to official project documents.
Designated as a free-zone area, the PDHC hub, once completed, will feature an overall crude oil processing capacity of at least 900,000 b/sd spread across three new 300,000-b/d refineries, each of which can be expanded to 500,000 b/sd between 2030 and 2035 for an overall processing capacity of 1.5 million b/sd. Each of the project’s three phases will include a new refinery.
While neither PDHC nor member companies of the first-phase consortium have revealed detailed project responsibilities or timelines, PDHC said it will execute the entirety of the industrial hub in three phases between 2024 and 2036 at an overall estimated cost of about US$60 billion.
West Africa consumes about 800,000 barrels per day according to the African Refiners and Distributors Association, of which almost 90% is imported.
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