MILAN: Italian energy group Eni, Africa’s biggest foreign oil and gas producer, and partner oil trader Vitol said they had made their first important oil discovery offshore Ghana where they operate two blocks.
During production tests, the well produced about 5,000 high quality barrels of oil per day although the flow rate was constrained by inadequate surface infrastructure, Eni said in a statement.
Eni said the discovery had commercial potential and confirmed the importance of the block in terms of oil present, as well as natural gas and condensates.
Swiss-based Vitol, known for its role as a middle man, buying and selling cargoes on the global market, has taken steps in recent years to acquire upstream and downstream assets.
As Africa’s newest oil exporter, Ghana has attracted strong interest from exploration companies despite missing output targets last year after Tullow Oil postponed production from its lucrative Jubilee field.
Eni, which is sitting on massive gas reserves in Mozambique that have drawn a lot of interest from other majors, is keen to expand its footprint in Africa.
The planned sale of its controlling stake in Italian gas transport group Snam will raise about 6 billion euros ($ 7.83 billion) in cash and remove 11 billion euros of debt from the Eni balance sheet, resources that could be used to fund upstream business.
The Ghana discovery was made in the country’s Offshore Cape Three Points block in which Eni owns a controlling 47.2 percent stake, Vitol’s Ghana branch has a 37.8 percent stake and Ghana’s state oil firm GNPC has 15 percent.
Eni makes first big oil discovery in Ghana
Eni makes first big oil discovery in Ghana
Emerging markets should depend less on external funding, says Nigeria finance minister
RIYADH: Developing economies must rely less on external financing as high global interest rates and geopolitical tensions continue to strain public finances, Nigeria’s finance minister told Al-Eqtisadiah.
Asked how Nigeria is responding to rising global interest rates and conflicts between major powers such as the US and China, Wale Edun said that current conditions require developing countries to rethink traditional financing models.
“I think what it means for countries like Nigeria, other African countries, and even other developing countries is that we have to rely less on others and more on our own resources, on our own devices,” he said on the sidelines of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies.
He added: “We have to trade more with each other, we have to cooperate and invest in each other.”
Edun emphasized the importance of mobilizing domestic resources, particularly savings, to support investment and long-term economic development.
According to Edun, rising debt servicing costs are placing an increasing burden on developing economies, limiting their ability to fund growth and social programs.
“In an environment where developing countries as a whole — what we are paying in debt service, what we are paying in terms of interest costs and repayments of our debt — is more than we are receiving in what we call overseas development assistance, and it is more than even investments by wealthy countries in our economies,” he said.
Edun added that countries in the Global South are increasingly recognizing the need for deeper regional integration.
His comments reflect growing concern among developing nations that elevated borrowing costs and global instability are reshaping development finance, accelerating a shift toward domestic resource mobilization and stronger economic ties among emerging markets.
