Springfield and Afreximbank sign $750m credit facility

Springfield Exploration and Production Limited (SEP), an independent African energy company) has signed a $750 million facility with African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).

The funding is expected to add tremendous value to the oil block.

The ceremony took place at the just-ended Afreximbank’s 30th Annual General Meetings held in Accra.

2019 discovery announcementSp

Springfield E&P announced in December 2019 it had made a significant oil discovery in the West Cape Three Points Block 2, offshore Ghana and more than doubled its already existing oil reserves to 1.5 billion barrels.

This is the first foray of a fully Ghanaian-owned into deepwater exploration.

Welcome boost to Ghana

The $750 million facility which will help Sprinfield develop the find comes as a welcome boost to Ghana.

Ghana which only began commercial crude production at the Jubilee field in 2010 came relatively late to the oil industry compared with West African neighbours. 

Indiginisation agenda

The $750 million facility to springfield is a giant step in support of indiginisation as 13 years after establishing prospects of hydrocarbons that continue to attract global giants, Ghanaian institutional and individual investors have failed to pool resources to take the mandatory five per cent equity in all upstream oil activities.

This situation continues to hamper the full consumption of petroleum agreements including that of ExxonMobil.

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

The facility will positively impact the development of the West Cape Three Points Block 2, particularly the unitized Afina-Sankofa field.

In October 2019, the Afina-1 well made two discoveries that included gas and critical light crude oil at a water depth of 1,030 metres drilled to a total depth of 4,085 metres.

Almost one Trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas

The discovery also added Springfield’s almost one Trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas to the existing discoveries.

Over 3 billion barrels of oil and gas in multiple leads

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

After the facility, Founder and CEO of Springfield Group Kevin Okyere told the media that he was happy to see African companies build an alliance with a great African financial institution like Afreximbank.

“This facility will enable us to add tremendous value to our oil block and we are very excited about the opportunity,”  he said.

Springfield became the first indigenous, independent energy company in Africa’s history to drill in deep water and places Springfield amongst known exploration companies, mostly foreign-owned, who are currently either in production or exploration phase of operation in a Deepwater area.

Springfield incorporated in March 2008

Springfield Exploration and Production Limited was incorporated in March 2008 to pursue exploration and production opportunities in Ghana and the West African sub-region.

The process of acquiring a block began in 2012, but this was finally awarded by the Government of Ghana in March 2016.

The Company is currently the Operator and Majority Interest Holder of West Cape Three Points Block 2 with the Ghana National Petroleum Company and its exploration company, EXPLORCO holding the remaining interest.

Springfield Group is 100% homegrown Ghanaian-owned with Springfield having 84 per cent stake and GNPC having 16% in the company through its subsidiary – Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Explorco.

Springfield is a subsidiary of Springfield Group made up of different energy sector products and services providers in Ghana.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and extra-African trade.

Afreximbank deploys innovative structures to deliver financing solutions that support the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and intra-regional trade, thereby boosting economic expansion in Africa.