Ghana must get more from the agreement Aker Energy Petroleum – Imani

General News on Friday, April 26, 2019

Source: Ghananewsagency.org

2019-04-26

The political think tank Imani Ghana on Thursday urged the government to renegotiate the Aker Energy Petroleum deal, saying the country could lose billions of dollars if the current deal is respected.

Mr Kofi Bentil, Vice President of IMANI Ghana, who launched the call at a forum organized by the think tank, said the discovery of more than 500 million barrels, worth $ 30 billion, announced by Aker Energy Ghana, legally belonged to Ghana.

According to IMANI, the agreement reached by Aker Energy with the Ghana National Petroleum Commission at the time of the discovery did not cover the specific concession and therefore the exploration.

Therefore, Mr. Bentil stated that Aker should not stand as if he was the owner of the discovery.

The company is a subsidiary of the Norwegian company Exploration and Production of Petroleum, Aker Energy AS. and the operator of the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points Block (DWT / CTP), with a 50% interest in the license.

Earlier this year, it announced that it had discovered oil in commercial quantities at the Cape Three Point offshore after taking over Hess Energy's concession.

Bentil said Aker Energy was right in informing the government of the new discovery according to the law. "… stakeholders such as Imani Ghana do not know if both parties have started negotiations on its property and how this would be handled and this has been a cause for concern.

"This has been a source of concern because Aker's proposal for the revision of the development plan (PDD) submitted to the government for the agreement has not yet been negotiated.

"In one way or another, Aker thinks he can get more favorable terms even with the new law and seeks to recognize the conditions he inherited and in which Hess was working."

Mr Bentil said the DDA should be approved within 30 days and that the deadline was Friday, April 26, 2019, which is why Imani was questioning the government about the reasons for the delay.

"If the government does not accept the proposed revisions within 14 days, any issue in dispute between the Minister and the Contractor must be referred for dispute resolution in accordance with Article 24.

He said Hess's concession was based on the old law, which many people thought had spoiled Ghana because it gave too little to the country.

"As a result, new laws, including the Petroleum Act 19, were enacted so that we could get a little more of our oil."

Mr Franklyn Codjoe, president of Imani Ghana, urged the media to specialize in the oil and gas industry in order to empower governments and ensure transparency in the region.

"If we do not get satisfactory answers, we will ask the courts to determine who owns the oil," he said.

"We will remain vigilant on this issue and we are not alone".

Mr. Solomon Kwawn Kumie, representative of the Center for National Resources and Environmental Management, congratulated Imani for his work.

He said the most significant elements of a tax system were the economic benefits, for the government-owned resource, from the production of its oil and gas resources and other minerals from the subsoil.

He quoted the 2017 Public Accountability and Responsibility Committee (PIAC) report that Ghana would have earned $ 4 billion 09 billion out of the $ 20,272 billion, or 19.77 percent of total revenues from the crude oil production at the end of the seven years.

This came from the Jubilee, TEN and Sankofa hybrid royalty / system tax system.

As a result, the country lost nearly $ 9 million of its oil and gas production revenues, which could have been avoided if the Global Standard Production Sharing Agreement had been adopted.

He urged all stakeholders to try as much as possible to work together for the protection of natural resources for the benefit of future generations.

Other speakers also urged the organizations representing Ghana to prioritize the national interest and use the knowledge and expertise of experts to get the best deals for Ghanaians.