Deputy Minister-designate for Energy, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, has called for the introduction of a third-party assessment of the directives on the unitization of the Afina and Sankofa fields.

This follows a delay in the two companies joining forces to explore the Afina and Sankofa fields.

It will be recalled that former Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu, in April 2020, demanded the unitization after the extension of the Afina field to Sankofa and vice versa.

However, Springfield has since accused ENI of not being cooperative but Mr. Egyapa Mercer at his vetting on Monday 7th June 2021, indicated that this could be resolved if challenges on the percentages to be accrued by each party were addressed.

“My understanding, and I do not know the full details, is that the directives that were issued had with it some percentage of track participation in the field that inured to the benefits of Springfield as to ENI. That has led to ENI objecting to that directive that the minister issued. This is a straightforward matter. The issue of unitization is not in doubt. So I believe that some third party assessment ought to be made to determine whether indeed the percentages that the minister issued which was as a result of some assessment that GNPC had done would be the way to go. That we can quickly resolve and unitize the field so that Ghana can get the benefit of producing resources from that field through one operator,” he said.

Many stakeholders have also called on the government to, without delay, introduce a new evaluator to look into the ongoing impasse between ENI Ghana Exploration and Production Limited, and Springfield Exploration and Production Limited.

IES MarketScan: A year on, why hasn’t ENI and Springfield unitized as directed

In April 2020, the then Energy Minister John Peter Amewu wrote to the subsidiary of the Italian oil major Eni Ghana Exploration and Production Limited (ENI), and Springfield Exploration and Production Limited (Springfield) a subsidiary of Springfield Group, directing them to execute a Unitization and Unit Operating Agreement (UUOA).

The purpose of executing the UUOA is to give full effect to the Government’s directive to unitize the Afina and Sankofa fields and the subsequent imposition of terms and conditions for the unitization of the Afina discovery in the West Cape Three Points (WCTP2) and the Sankofa field in the offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) contract areas.