National Oil Company Profile: GNPC
Highlights
Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is planning to restore its oil and gas production, which has declined in recent years. Whether it will be able to expand its production significantly depends on the trajectory of global oil demand.
GNPC faces relatively little transition risk, as its entire investment pipeline breaks even in the moderate-paced energy transition. However, 20 percent of Ghana’s export income is from oil sales, so the country’s foreign currency earnings are at risk.
GNPC has an important role to play in providing gas to Ghanaians.
The company has not disclosed any targets for decarbonization or diversification plans. It is focused on increasing its productive and technical capacities.
See the accompanying guide for definitions of all variables and explanations of the terms used. Sources are referenced with a number in parentheses, e.g., (1), and listed at the end of the profile, together with the reference year. An explanation of the energy transition scenarios used is also at the end of the profile, preceding the references.
This profile was last updated in August 2024.
Key statistics
Total emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3) from reserves (proved, 1P) (1, 9) | 10 Mt CO₂e |
Home country income level (2) | Lower-middle income |
Equitable phase-out responsibility (16) | N/A |
Company transition risk: share of investment that does not break even in a moderate transition scenario (1, 20) | <1% |
Government revenues from oil and gas at risk in the moderate transition scenario, as share of current oil and gas government revenue (8) | N/A |
Current share of total government revenue from oil and gas (8) | N/A |
Company governance
Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is the state-owned oil and gas company of Ghana, responsible for exploration, development, production and marketing of petroleum and natural gas resources in the country. Established in 1983, GNPC plays a central role in Ghana's oil and gas sector, which has become increasingly important to the country’s economy since the discovery of significant oil reserves in the mid-2000s.
GNPC’s upstream operations involve both direct exploration and production as well as partnerships with international oil companies (IOCs) through joint ventures and production-sharing agreements. Key oil fields in Ghana include the Jubilee field, TEN (Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme) fields and the Sankofa Gye Nyame field, all located offshore in the Tano Basin and Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points areas.
GNPC also plays a significant role in natural gas production and commercialization, but has, in practice, ceded its role of gas aggregation and operation of the Western Corridor Gas Infrastructure Project to the Ghana Gas Company, which processes gas from Ghana’s offshore fields for domestic power generation.
Ghana’s refining sector is handled mainly by the Tema Oil Refinery, though GNPC has been exploring options for greater involvement in refining and petrochemical activities.
Ghana’s national oil company (NOC) is structured as a public limited company but operates as a state-owned enterprise and is not listed on a stock exchange. In the early years of its inception, GNPC’s primary role was to monitor and regulate the petroleum sector on behalf of the Ministry of Energy (Ghana Petroleum Regulatory Authority Bill 2008). This changed when additional oil and gas were discovered in the offshore Jubilee field. The prospect of greater participation in and revenues from the oil sector prompted the government to establish the Petroleum Commission in 2010 (the law was enacted in 2011) to take over regulatory duties from GNPC.
Joseph Abuabu Dazie, a former GNPC financial executive, has served as the CEO of GNPC since May 2024, when the former CEO Opoku-Ahweneeh Danquah resigned (17). The government of Ghana appoints the company’s board of directors, with members typically including government officials and industry professionals.
Founded (5) | 1983 |
Partially privatized (5) | No |
Listed on exchange (5) | No |
Employment (3) | N/A |
OPEC member country (13) | No |
International exploration and production operations (5) | No |
Subsidiaries (5) | N/A |
Ownership
Government of Ghana | 100% |
Environmental, social and governance performance
Environmental, social and governance performance (ESG) indicators are not available for GNPC. It has a Resource Governance Index score (which measures the transparency and accountability of fossil fuel revenue management, value realization, and the quality of the wider enabling governance environment) well above regional and global averages.
Company | Country | ESG | Environmental score (5) | Social score (5) | Governance score (5) | Resource Governance Index score (15) |
GNPC | Ghana | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 78 |
NNPC | Nigeria | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 53 |
Sonangol | Angola | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 35 |
Regional average |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 54 |
Global average |
| 66 | 68 | 66 | 64 | 52 |
Reserves and production
GNPC’s oil production has declined in recent years after a peak in 2019. Given a slow transition scenario, Rystad Energy projects a doubling of GNPC’s oil output by 2032 in the event of high oil prices. This would require GNPC to develop new reserves, as current oil reserves will last for only nine years at current production rates. In the event of a faster paced energy transition, Rystad Energy forecasts a long-term decline in GNPC’s oil output. Rystad projects a similar path for gas production with a brief peak before 2030 and long-term decline thereafter.
Sources: (1, 3, NRGI visualization)
Refining capacity (bpd) | N/A |
Pipeline capacity (bpd) | N/A |
Oil reserves of NOC (proved, 1P) (million boe) (1) | 84 |
Oil reserves of NOC as share of reserves of country (1) | 19% |
Years of oil reserves left at current production (1) | 9 |
Gas reserves of NOC (million boe) (1) | 32 |
Gas reserves of NOC as share of reserves of country (1) | 20% |
Years of gas reserves left at current production (1) | 9 |
NOC share in the country’s total oil production (3) | 20% |
NOC ownership share of the country’s oil reserves (3) | 20% |
Transition and other economic risks
Even in the moderate transition scenario, Ghana’s oil output and therefore revenues would drop significantly. Although Ghana’s government revenue is relatively well diversified, a decline would hurt Ghana’s foreign currency earnings, around 20 percent of which are from crude oil exports.
Economic dependence on fossil fuel revenues and exports
Indicator | 2013–2017 | 2018–2023 |
NOC transfers to government as share of total fiscal revenue (3) | 4% | 4% |
Crude oil export revenues as share of country’s export revenues (7) | 21% | 28% |
Gas export revenues as share of country’s export revenues (7) | 0% | 0% |
Government revenues at risk in the transition
Data not available.
Credit ratings
| Fitch (5) | Moody’s (5) | S&P (5) |
Ghana | Restricted default | Ca | Selective default |
GNPC | N/A | N/A | N/A |
GNPC financial performance
Company | Country | Liquidity: current ratio (1, 3) | Efficiency and profits: return on capital employed (1, 3) | Indebtedness: leverage (1, 3) |
GNPC | Ghana | 26% | N/A | 37% |
NNPC | Nigeria | N/A | N/A | 23% |
Sonangol | Angola | 42% | 13% | 31% |
Regional median |
| 42% | –6% | 37% |
Global median |
| 34% | 14% | 30% |
Investment at risk in different energy transition scenarios
Source: (20)
GNPC faces comparably little transition risk. In the moderate transition scenario, almost all its investment pipeline breaks even. The largest oil and gas fields in the deep water off Ghana’s coast all have relatively low costs, and part of the production from the Jubilee field (the Mahogany/Hyedua project) breaks even in any of the three transition scenarios. The only major upcoming project that GNPC is invested in, the Teak expansion of the Jubilee field, has higher break-even costs but still breaks even in a moderate-paced energy transition.
GNPC has not disclosed any measures to adapt its business model to transition risk. It does not report any decarbonization or diversification measures.
Sources: (12, 13, 14)
Energy security
Ghanaians are likely to continue to rely heavily on gas for their energy supply. As such, GNPC plays a key role in ensuring the country’s energy security, since most of its gas production caters to domestic demand. However, gas reserves are due to run out in nine years at current rates of production, and growing electricity demand requires new gas discoveries, more imports or the development of alternative sources of electricity.
Oil refining capacity remains a bottleneck for Ghana. A consortium of private Ghanaian companies that excludes GNPC has recently started to construct a large “petroleum hub” complex with a refining capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, which they hope will satisfy a large share of demand for refined oil products in West Africa (18). However, local people resist the project (19).
Refining throughput of NOC as share of final country consumption of oil products (14) | N/A |
Years of oil reserves left at current production (1) | 9 |
Years of gas reserves left at current production (1) | 9 |
Crude oil and refined oil products imports as share of national consumption of oil products (13) | 97% |
Share of oil and gas in primary energy consumption of country (13) | 61% |
Gas imports as share of country supply of gas (13) | 14% |
Share of electricity production of country from renewables (13) | 37% |
Emissions
Oil and gas production in Ghana has relatively high emissions per barrel. However, GNPC has not disclosed its scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions, nor any reduction targets or concrete measures to reduce its production-related emissions. Given its limited reserves, its potential emissions are low in comparison to those of other NOCs. GNPC does not participate in the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC) member company.
NOC emissions reduction target, scope 3 emissions (11) | N/A |
Annual scope 1 and 2 emissions of NOC (5) | N/A |
Annual scope 3 emissions of NOC (5) | N/A |
Average GHG emitted before combustion per barrel of oil produced (14) | 73 kg CO2e |
Average GHG emitted before combustion per boe of gas produced (14) | 110 kg CO2e |
OGDC member company (20) | No |
NOC net zero target, scope 1 and 2 emissions (5) | N/A |
Total potential emissions (scope 1–3) from reserves (1, 9) | 9.6 Mt CO2e |
Equitable phase-out responsibility of the country (16) | N/A |
Energy transition scenarios
We use four energy transition scenarios:
Fast. We based this scenario on the oil and gas demand estimated in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero Emissions (NZE) by 2050 Scenario, which maps out a transition pathway that would limit global warming to 1.5°C. This assumes large-scale negative emissions enabled by technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
Moderate. We based this scenario on the IEA’s Announced Pledges Scenario (APS), which assumes the full and timely implementation of national energy and climate goals, including net zero emissions targets.
Slow. We based this scenario on the IEA’s Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS), which assumes governments follow their current set of energy and climate policies.
Expansion. We based this scenario on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) scenario, which assumes a continued expansion in demand up to 2045.
Sources
All data are from the latest year available as referenced in the relevant source as of August 2024. For most data this is 2024. Data related to emissions and NOC finances are from 2023 or in some cases 2022. Data on country-level oil and gas reserves and production, the ownership of oil and gas reserves, employment and energy security are from 2022. The Resource Governance Index score is from 2021. If you find an error in this profile, please email noc_profiles@resourcegovernance.org.
Rystad Energy UCube, 2024 (proprietary data)
World Bank, 2024
NOC Database, 2023
OPEC, 2024
S&P Global IQ, 2024 (proprietary data)
Resource Governance Index (NRGI), 2021
UN Comtrade, 2024
Carbon Tracker, 2023
Facing the Future (NRGI), 2023
Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC), 2024
International Energy Agency (IEA), 2023
Fossil Fuel Registry, 2023
An Equitable Phase Out of Fossil Fuel Extraction (Equity Review), 2023
Ghanaweb, 2024
Energy Capital & Power, 2024
The Scarab, 2024
Riskier Bets, Smaller Pockets (NRGI), 2023
