Ghana’s Ministry of Energy and Green Transition has approved Petrobras’ application to negotiate exploration contracts for four offshore blocks, all located in the underexplored Keta Basin along the country’s eastern Atlantic margin.
The approval moves the Brazilian state-controlled oil company into direct talks on contract terms, marking a potential new foothold for Petrobras in West Africa.
The Keta Basin has seen limited drilling activity—only about six wells since the 1970s, with the last deepwater well in 2003—and no commercial discoveries to date, despite hydrocarbon shows in earlier wells and geological analogies to proven systems elsewhere in the Gulf of Guinea and to Brazil’s Equatorial Margin.
Ghana is actively promoting the area to reverse a near-50% decline in national oil production since its 2019 peak, with plans to auction additional blocks once new seismic mapping (including a major TGS 2D-cubed project targeting completion in early 2027) improves subsurface understanding.
This fits Petrobras’ broader strategy of making Africa its primary exploratory region outside Brazil to replenish reserves and diversify its portfolio beyond the mature pre-salt fields at home.
In June 2026, the company signed eight production-sharing contracts for offshore blocks in Côte d’Ivoire (CI-513, CI-600, CI-601, CI-602, CI-603, CI-605, CI-701 and CI-702), covering a substantial portion of that country’s sedimentary basin.
It has also pursued farm-in opportunities in Namibia (including a 42.5% stake in a Lüderitz Basin license alongside TotalEnergies, subject to regulatory approvals) and evaluated acreage in São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa and elsewhere.
Petrobras executives have highlighted the geological similarities between West African conjugate margins and Brazil’s promising Equatorial Margin frontier.
If the Ghana negotiations conclude successfully, the blocks would expand Petrobras’ international upstream footprint in a frontier setting while supporting Ghana’s push for fresh exploration investment. No specific block names, equity interests or work commitments have been disclosed yet, and final agreements remain subject to successful talks.
