Petroleum Heritage Fund Raises Approximately US $ 500 Million – PIAC

Company News of Friday, July 12, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-07-12

Ghana's oil revenue from the Heritage Fund reached USD 485,172,436.04 in 2018, seven years after the country began commercial crude oil production.

The country's Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) 2011 defines the Ghana Heritage Fund to save oil revenues for future generations of Ghanaians.

However, the closing amount of the Ghana Stabilization Fund at the end of 2018 amounted to $ 381.20 million, revealed a report from the Committee for the Public Interest and Liability (PIAC).

The Stabilization Fund seeks instead to mitigate the negative effects of volatile oil revenues on the national budget and to maintain the capacity for public spending in case of unexpected revenue loss.

Speaking at a public forum to disseminate the 2018 Annual Report on the Management and Use of Petroleum Revenues, held at Techiman in the Bono East area, Mr. Steve Manteaw, President of the PIAC said that Ghana's oil production had registered some improvements.

He observed that the Stabilization Fund was not generally used for the purpose for which it had been considered in the PRMA.

The country's total crude oil production from the three deposits – Jubilee, TEN and Sankofa Gye Nyame (SGN) has increased from 58,658,063.54 barrels in 2017 to 62,135,435.07 barrels in 2018.

Of the total production, the Jubilee field produced 28,461,755 barrels, the TEN field 23,537,361 and the SGN 10,751,671 field.

Dr. Manteaw said that a total of $ 977,093,285 had been paid to the Oil Retention Fund through royalties, deferred interests and participation, corporate income tax and surface rents. .

He stated that 2018 revenues represented about a quarter of total revenue in 2011-17, indicating that this increase was mainly due to the drilling of more RTE wells, the rebound in the price of crude on the international market and the Production production of SGN Field.

Dr. Manteaw is worried about the country's excessive reliance on oil revenues to fund the free high school program and is asking the government to look for other ways to increase funding to support the implementation of this worthwhile educational program.

Last year, he said that an amount of 871,012.44 GhC419, representing an increase of 107.47% over 2017, had been used for physical infrastructure and service delivery in the education sector.

The education distribution in 2018 to the free SHS program (goods and services) was 98.75%, while 125% concerned infrastructural infrastructure education (public investment expenditure).