The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has stated analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) could unlock over one billion barrels of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas from stranded fields in the Tano Basin, a move that could help turn around Ghana’s falling oil output.
The study was part of GNPC’s drive to find ways of using existing oil and gas infrastructure to develop resources that may not be viable on their own.
Senior Geomatic Engineer at GNPC, Emmanuel Boadum Donkor, told journalists on the sidelines of the Esri User Conference West Africa 2026, organised by Sambus Geospatial Limited, that GIS was helping the Corporation map how current infrastructure can be linked to stranded resources to cut development costs.
“With only the Tano Basin that we have done the analysis around, we have been able to identify over 1 billion barrels of oil that we can actually potentially add to our production rate and about 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas that we can actually add to our current production to boost it,” he said.
Mr Donkor explained that developing the resources separately would require huge capital spending, while a hub approach backed by GIS could pool several stranded assets and make their development commercially attractive.
“If you take up the CAPEX in terms of developing the infrastructure to extract these stranded resources independently, if you compare it to doing it in the hub way which we are seeking to do, you realise that it brings down the cost of investment and then it actually boosts our confidence to be able to extract these stranded resources,” he said.
GIS has become a key decision-support tool for GNPC, with Mr Donkor noting that about 80% of the Corporation’s data is location-based.
“At GNPC it is a very significant part of us, as our data contains about 80% location information, and that tells you how significant positioning is to our industry,” he stated.
He said GIS can integrate data on wells, pipelines, roads, communities, farms and environmentally sensitive zones to guide petroleum infrastructure development while reducing potential impacts.
The proposed model could therefore allow Ghana to tap existing infrastructure instead of building separate facilities for each stranded resource. Mr Donkor said the next step will hinge on agreement on how the identified prospects can be executed.
