Oil production from a floating facility off the coast of Ghana has started three months ahead of schedule, Dutch energy company Vitol said.

Vitol and Italian energy company Eni are leading efforts alongside the Ghana National Petroleum Corp. to draw on the oil and gas reserves at the Sankofa reservoir offshore Ghana. Using a floating production storage and offloading vessel, the partnership is tapping into a basin with an estimated 1.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 500 million barrels of oil in place.

"This is great news for the project and for Ghana," Chairman and CEO Ian Taylor said in a statement. "It is thanks to the hard work and professionalism of everyone involved in the project that collectively we have been able to deliver first oil [more than] three months ahead of schedule."

Vitol said production should reach about 45,000 barrels of oil per day in time for cargo loading in August.

The floating production platform was christened in honor of Ghanaian President Emeritus John Agyekum Kufuor in January. Drawing on the natural gas assets offshore, Vitol said the project will help fuel Ghana's thermal power sector for at least 20 years.

A mid-2016 report from Moody's Investors Service found the potential for higher oil and gas production in Ghana could spur economic recovery at a time of mounting debt. At around $8 billion, Vitol said its floating facility represented the largest foreign direct investment ever in Ghana since it declared independence in 1957.

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