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Kofi Bentil believes that the government must stand up and claim what belongs to the people
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If the government does not act quickly to protect the interests of the state, Ghana could lose $ 30 billion of oil deposits to a Norwegian company, Aker Energy, said IMANI Ghana .
The 450 to 550 million barrels of oil – discovered in two wells – were discovered in February and March 2019.
Earlier this year, the company announced the discovery of oil in the Pecan South-1A well located in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points Block (DWT / CTP) off Ghana.
The discovery is touted as the greatest oil discovery in Africa.
At a forum hosted by a civil society group, IMANI-Ghana, his vice president Kofi Bentil forcefully baderted that the discovery is claimed by Aker Energy without legal basis.
Aker Energy acquired the 51% stake in a previous well in the area found by another Norwegian company, Hess Oil.
Hess Oil was governed by an oil agreement signed in 2006 with the Government of Ghana, which gave it seven years to carry out oil exploration work in a given area, the contracted area.
This exploration period ended in 2013.
According to the laws governing oil exploration and production in Ghana, Kofi Bentil states that any discovery of oil discovered outside the exploration period can not be claimed by the company that found it – it belongs to the company. State.
In fact, he said, Aker Energy, having inherited Hess's oil well at the end of the exploration period, was not legally allowed to continue its exploration activities .
They were only to perform work evaluating the Pecan discovery made by his predecessor – Hess Oil.
Why were they allowed to engage in exploration in flagrant violation of the laws? Kofi Bentil wondered.
Assuming that Aker Energy accidentally fell on a new well during appraisal, it was legally required to notify the government so that it negotiates who controls what stake.
Kofi Bentil stated that this did not happen in this case.
Instead, he said, the company claimed the new wells as they were part of the acquired stake of Hess Oil.
He pointed out that it could not be said that the new wells were part of the original well as an badessment had shown that there was no dynamic communication between the new wells and the existing well. Dynamic communication is the basis for determining whether an oil discovery is independent of the existing one.
Development plan
Kofi Bentil has read extensively, documents suggesting that Aker Energy had submitted to the government its development plan for new wells.
By law, the Minister of Energy should evaluate this development plan (DDA) and either disagree or approve it.
If the Minister does not respond within 30 days, the proposals submitted by the corporation are deemed to be accepted.
On Friday, April 26, 2019, the Vice President of IMANI said that if the Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu, did not answer (the Petroleum Commission had advised him to do so), the discovery $ 30 billion would become the sole property of Aker Energy.
He does not understand why the ministry seems lax while the country is about to lose a resource that legitimately belongs to the people of Ghana.
Appropriation of the workspace
The two new oil wells are not the only resources that Aker Energy claims ownership of.
According to Mr. Bentil, in flagrant violation of the laws, the company refused to surrender the rest of the contract area to the state.
In fact, the company claimed the 30% returned by Hess prior to the acquisition of its stake by Aker Energy.
The company has in fact indicated that it will continue its oil exploration activities in the Deepwater Cape Three Point / Tano South area.
This is despite the fact that no oil agreement allows it to continue prospecting.
Kofi Bentil insists that with the discovery and evaluation of the wells, the remaining parts of the Pecan field should have been abandoned.
Conflict of potential interest
IMANI fears that Aker Energy is ignoring Ghanaian laws because they are politically linked.
Fueltrade Ghana Ltd., one of the first partners of its predecessor, belongs to the managing director of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), he said.
Kofi Bentil said that if this interest persists, the position of Dr. K.K. Sarpong at the head of the GNPC, which is the main government negotiator on oil issues, raises questions.
While arguing that IMANI is not interested in allegations and accusations of wrongdoing, he insisted that the government should protect the national interest by claiming its share of new oil wells discovered.
He is surprised that the government did not pay the $ 140 million it had to pay to retain a stake in the Pecan well.
"Ghana needs money," he said, "God knows we need it, so the government must act quickly and claim it."
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