Ghana received US$561.41 million in petroleum revenue in the first half of 2026, 52% more than the US$370.34 million it received in the first half of 2025, according to the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), the statutory body that monitors oil and gas revenue.
PIAC said the rise was driven mainly by higher achieved crude oil prices and a 37% increase in corporate income tax collections.
The figures come from PIAC's 2026 Semi-Annual Report on the Management and Use of Petroleum Revenues, covering January to June, which the committee released on 21 October.
Production and gas flaring
Crude oil production rose 11.73% to 20,575,377 barrels in the first half of 2026, from 18,415,411 barrels a year earlier, mainly because of higher output from the Jubilee and Sankofa-Gye Nyame (SGN) fields, PIAC said. Elsewhere in the same statement, the committee says production "rose by only 2.7 percent"; it does not explain the difference, and StatsGH uses the barrel figures it published.
Because the revenue gain came mainly from prices rather than volumes, PIAC told the Ministry of Finance to "treat the gains as volatile" and to keep moving any revenue above the benchmark into the Ghana Petroleum Funds.
Gas flaring fell on all three producing fields compared with the first half of 2025: by 74.02% on Jubilee, 40.79% on TEN and 79.73% on SGN, which PIAC credited to better compliance with Environmental Protection Agency flaring limits.
Unpaid surface rentals
Surface rental arrears owed by upstream companies stood at about US$2.41 million at the end of June, despite recovery efforts by the Ghana Revenue Authority, PIAC said. A further US$1.73 million is owed under terminated petroleum agreements, bringing the total to about US$4.14 million, the figure the Business & Financial Times reported on 10 November.
PIAC called on the GRA to apply penalties and interest to persistent defaulters and said all arrears should be settled before any contract area is renegotiated, renewed or reallocated, including the renegotiation now under way with Swiss African Oil Company Ltd.
GNPC and gas
The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation received US$85.98 million, 39.9% of the carried and participating interest. Of the US$40.14 million it received as Jubilee equity financing, it applied only US$23.45 million to Jubilee production and development costs.
The remaining US$16.69 million, with other GNPC receipts, paid for non-field spending including staff costs and construction of its head office, PIAC said, and it asked GNPC to account for that sum.
PIAC also warned that a 17.53% year-on-year fall in the total value of gas sold by the Ghana National Gas Limited Company continues to strain the company's finances.
The report has no chapter on how petroleum revenue was spent, because the Ministry of Finance did not submit the data PIAC requested, the committee said.
Sources: PIAC press statement on the 2026 Semi-Annual Report, 21 October 2026; Business & Financial Times, 10 November 2026.