Ghana’s oil sector is in crisis, with revenues plunging by a staggering 56% in the first half of 2025, raising alarms over the nation’s economic stability and future development funding.
The latest Semi-annual Report from the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) reveals that petroleum receipts plummeted to a mere $370.34 million, down from $840.77 million in the same period last year.
This dramatic decline is driven by a “perfect storm” of a sharp 25.9% drop in crude oil production and lower achieved global prices.
The nation’s three producing fields—Jubilee, TEN, and Sankofa (SGN)—all saw significant output declines.
The flagship Jubilee Field was the hardest hit, with production falling by 32.8% due to planned shutdowns and natural reservoir decline. The report paints a bleak picture of an industry in retreat, noting a worrying lack of new investment to reverse the trend.
“PIAC observes that Ghana is not attracting new investments in its upstream petroleum industry, to the extent that no new Petroleum Agreement has been signed since 2018,” the Committee stated in its report.
This eight-year drought in new agreements signals a deep-seated lack of confidence or competitive appeal, threatening the long-term viability of the sector.
The financial haemorrhage is widespread. Corporate Income Tax payments from oil companies fell by 59%, and revenues from the state’s direct equity in the fields (Carried and Participating Interest) also dropped significantly.
The report also highlights a growing pile of uncollected debts, with surface rental arrears owed by various companies ballooning to $2.82 million.
The implications for the national budget are dire. The Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), which uses petroleum revenue to finance infrastructure and other projects, received only $148.28 million, just a quarter of its projected allocation for the year.
This shortfall threatens to delay or derail critical government projects and exacerbates the nation’s fiscal challenges.
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