Greek shipping company wins $160m Ghana oil contract

A Greek shipping company, DryShips Inc., is reported to have signed an exploration and drilling contract in Ghana.

The deal which is with Vanco Overseas Energy Ltd. is worth $160 million, The Wall Street Journal quoted the company as saying.

The deal according to the report is a five-well contract for exploration-drilling offshore of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire for about a year with one drillship. The report also indicated that it is higher than the $135 million, 300-day contract the company initially announced in September.

DryShips last week announced 60 days were added to the contract but didn’t give an updated value, it added.

Ghana is due to join the world’s oil producing countries when commercial oil production begins in November or December 2010 from the Jubilee oil field. The field is set to be the largest to be discovered in West Africa in the last 10 to 15 years.

According to Tullow Oil, it contains 1.5 billion barrels of oil and has 17 wells.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi