Ghana’s state-owned Petroleum Hub Development Corp. (PHDC) and a consortium of private-sector partners have formally broken ground on the previously announced first phase of the West African subregion’s first integrated downstream petroleum hub (OGJ Online, Aug. 12, 2024).
A groundbreaking ceremony for the multiphased megaproject’s Phase 1—including a 300,000-b/sd refinery, a petrochemical plant, and extensive storage and port installations—took place on Aug. 19 in Nawule, Jomoro, in Ghana’s Western Region, the office of Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in an official release.
"This project promises to be a cornerstone of our nation’s development, ensuring that all Ghanaian homes and industries have access to reliable, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy," Akufo-Addo said at the event, stressing the development’s strategic importance in Ghana’s plan to increase domestic refining capacity and ensure a diversified, efficient, and financially stable national energy economy.
In addition to its alignment with global environmental sustainability standards, the hub is designed to become a benchmark for crude and petroleum product pricing in Africa, as well as a site that will complement rather than compete with existing refineries in the region by focusing on serving the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) market, Akufo-Addo said.
In tandem with formal groundbreaking, Akufo-Addo also announced Ghana’s Ministry of Finance has allocated 200 million cedis (about $12.8 million) as land compensation for affected communities within the Jomoro district in gratitude to tribal chiefs and peoples within those areas offering their lands for the hub’s construction.
Additionally, Akufo-Addo additionally revealed plans to establish the Jomoro Petroleum Hub Development Corp. (JPHDC)—which would have headquarters in Jomoro—and directed the Ministry of Energy to ensure the training of 200,000 skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled Ghanaians in preparation for the project's takeoff, with a large portion of these workers to come directly from the Jomoro area.
Akufo-Addo also assured the consortium—which includes several international and local partners—the Ghanaian government’s full support for development of the hub that—funded solely by private-sector investors from across the international petroleum value chain—is anticipated to create about 780,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region, stabilize the national currency, and stimulate local economic development.
Phased development
Overseen by PHDC and under development by a consortium comprised of Touchstone Capital Group Holdings Ltd., UIC Energy Ghana Ltd., China Wuhan Engineering Co. Ltd., and China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co. Ltd., Phase 1 of the PHDC hub will be situated across 6,590.8 acres abutting the Gulf of Guinea located within the southern section of a total 20,000-acre tract of land PHDC acquired for the entire hub’s development in the Jomoro municipal district, according to official project documents.
In addition to its planned 300,000-b/sd refinery, Phase 1 will also involve construction of a 90,000-b/sd petrochemical plant, storage tanks with total capacity of 3 million cu m, as well as jetty and marine port infrastructure.
Designated as a free-zone area, the PDHC hub, once completed, will feature an overall crude oil processing capacity of at least 900,000 b/sd spread across three new 300,000-b/d refineries, each of which can be expanded to 500,000 b/sd between 2030 and 2035 for an overall processing capacity of 1.5 million b/sd. Each of the project’s three phases will include a new refinery.
PDHC has allotted 750 acres for construction of each refinery, and the three refineries will be able to source their feedstock from Ghana or abroad.
The hub ultimately will include five multi-purpose petrochemical plants, each with a capacity to produce 90,000 b/sd of chemicals, as well as fertilizers, lubricants, and cosmetics. Three of the plants will use natural gas as feedstock, with two plants processing crude-derived byproducts from the site’s refineries. Following construction of the hub’s first petrochemical plant in Phase 1, Phases 2 and 3 will add two new plants each.
While neither PDHC nor member companies of the first-phase consortium have revealed detailed project responsibilities or timelines, PDHC said it will execute the entirety of the industrial hub in three phases between 2024 and 2036 at an overall estimated cost of about $60 billion.
