Ghanaian oil exploration firm secures US$750 million loan facility from Afreximbank

Springfield Exploration and Production Limited (SEP), an independent Ghanaian energy company has received a tremendous boost to its role as a significant indigenous player in the country’s upstream petroleum sector.

On Tuesday June 20th, the company signed for a US$750 million facility from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), a Pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and extra-African trade.

Officials of the oil company are upbeat about using the facility to scale up operations in the West Cape Three Points Block 2 asset. In 2019, the Ghanaian energy company made history with its maiden well, Afina in what was described then, as one of the most significant discoveries that year.

Chief Executive officer of Springfield, Kevin Okyere, told the media after the signing ceremony at the just ended 30th Annual General Meeting of the Bank in Accra, that the facility would enable Springfield to add tremendous value to its highly prospective and already proven Block.

"This is a great day for African companies in building an alliance with a great African financial institution like Afreximbank. These are the kinds of cooperation we want to see on the continent" Okyere emphasized.

According to him, the facility will positively impact the development of the Block, including accelerating the unitization process of the Afina-Sankofa field.

From November 2019 when the company announced its discovery and subsequently received a mandatory directive from the government to unitize the Afina Well with ENI’s Sankofa oil field, it has been locked in a legal tussle with the Italian oil giants over the legality of the energy Ministry’s directive and other technicalities.

The Afina well was reported to have made two discoveries that included gas, critical and light oil at a water depth of 1030 metres drilled to a total depth of 4085 metres.

By that discovery, Springfield’s proven oil reserves shot up to 1.5 billion barrels and added 0.7tcf of gas to the existing discoveries.

The current undiscovered potential of the Block is estimated at over 3 billion barrels of oil and gas in multiple leads and prospects within multiple proven reservoir units.

Springfield was among some selected private and publicly-owned institutions that received funding from the bank, a practice that has long been institutionalized over the years at its annual meetings.

Mr George Owodo, Chief Finance Officer, signed on behalf of Springfield whilst Ms Oluranti Doherty, Director, Export Development of Afreximbank initialed for the bank.