Aker oil agreement: warnings of disaster are very alarmist – Casely-Hayford

General News of Sunday, April 28, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-04-28

Financial badyst Sydney Casely Hayford dispelled IMANI Africa's concerns over potential US $ 30 billion losses in Aker Energy's oil transactions in Ghana.

He said on The Big Issue that the statement issued by IMANI on this subject was "very alarmist".

"I think that the IMANI press conference gave the impression that the day of death is much worse. if a critical day the minister does not respond to Aker, then Aker will take all the oil on the ground. It's totally impossible. "

"This cataclysmic event that is supposed to take place because the minister has become obsolete and has not given an answer is not valid. He is totally disabled with regard to the whole process. "

Although the company says the initial work shows that the Pecan4A well located in the block could hold 450 to 550 million barrels of oil, Casely-Hayford explained that such an estimate would never be completed.

He expects only 25% of this sum to be realized. about half of what will be for the state.

According to him, that would only represent about 7 billion dollars.

"When you look at this, the $ 30 billion loss calculated by IMANI, I do not agree. According to my knowledge of how the industry works, you will never achieve it, "said Mr. Casely-Hayford.

Context

Aker Energy announced the discovery of oil in the Pecan South-1A Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points (DWT / CTP) well off Ghana.

Aker Energy is the field operator with a 50% stake for which it has recently submitted a $ 4.4 billion development plan to the government for approval.

But IMANI said that there were delays in sending the proposed development plan (DDP) to the government and that the think tank was concerned that the fact that the Ministry of Energy does not respond to the proposal within the 30 days provided by the law to lose its rights.

He said that a revenue potential of $ 30 billion from new oil wells was at stake.

But the government said Imani's claims were false and Energy Minister Peter Amewu criticized Imani for misinforming Ghanaians about the potential loss of $ 30 billion.

IMANI had said that the government had waited until Thursday, April 25 to respond to the proposal, one day after sounding the alarm.

In response to the statement that the Ministry had not responded to the DDA until Thursday, the minister said the proposal submitted on March 28 had not even been accepted.

Also on The Big Issue, Vice Minister of Information, Pius Hadzide, said: "The case is settled and the government says that [despite] the concerns that you may have with the DP as submitted by Aker, we do not accept it [Aker the propsal] in this way if [they should] make changes. "

A 45-day ultimatum was set for a new Aker proposal with new benchmarks to be met by the company.