Ghanaian court rules against Eni in court battle over Sankofa/Afina unitisation

Springfield Exploration and Production, a privately owned Ghanaian company, has scored a victory in its legal battle with Italy’s Eni over the unitisation of two offshore licence areas, Sankofa and Afina.

Ghana’s Energy Ministry ordered Eni and Springfield to combine Afina with Sankofa last year, citing a seismic study conducted by Ghana National Petroleum Corp. (GNPC) that purportedly showed the two fields to be part of the same structure. The sites have “identical reservoir and fluid properties,” Energy Minister John-Peter Amewu wrote in a letter to the two companies.

Thus far, though, the parties have not been able to reach agreement on unitisation of the sites. Springfield has blamed Eni for the impasse and has sued the Italian major in the Ghanaian court system, seeking compensation in light of the latter company’s failure to uphold the government’s order. Last week, the Commercial Court in Accra took Springfield’s side and ordered Eni’s local subsidiary, Eni Ghana Exploration, to pay 30% of revenues earned from oil sales into a joint escrow account.

The Ghanaian company unveiled the court’s decision in a statement last week.

Kevin Okyere, the CEO and founder of Springfield, hailed the ruling, calling it a vindication of his company’s position. “Springfield is not interested in stalling ongoing crude oil production [at] the Sankofa oilfield and [believes] in fairness and justice for all, irrespective of their size and position,” he declared. “The consequences of this case for the Ghanaian oil industry will be systemic and immediate.”

The Sankofa field lies within Offshore Cape Three Points (O/CTP), a licence area that is believed to hold about 500mn barrels of oil and 40bn cubic metres of gas. Eni began extracting oil from the field in 2017. Equity in the project is currently split between Eni (operator), with 44.44%; Vitol (Switzerland), with 35.56%; and Ghana National Petroleum Corp. (GNPC), with 20%.

Meanwhile, Springfield’s Afina field lies within the West Cape Three Points-2 (W/CTP-2) licence area, which holds around 1.5bn barrels of oil and 19.8 bcm of gas. The Ghanaian company has an 84% stake in the block, and its partners are GNPC and its exploration arm EXPLORCO.