Oil resources: Ghana risks situation in the Niger Delta – Expert

Company News of Thursday, April 25, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-04-25

An energy expert fears, Ghana may have a situation in the Niger Delta if the best options are not deployed in the exploration of onshore petroleum resources in the Voltarie Basin.

Kwame Jantuah wants the government to ensure that, even if the partners benefit from their investments, Ghanaians, especially those around the Voltarie Basin, where the oil will be explored, lose nothing.

Speaking Thursday at the African Oil Summit of Imani, the CEO of the African Energy Consortium Ltd said that if Ghana faced a problem of expertise in the oil and gas sector, gas, a more serious problem could arise in the Volta Basin if one does not take care.

"The biggest challenge will be in the Volta Basin, because people live on the land, their heritage [is] on earth and wondering when you find oil in a cocoa farm, what do you do first? Do you cut down the trees and exploit the oil or do you say no, keep it and do the agriculture?

"If we do not start mapping the Voltarian Basin when we start producing oil, we would end up as the Delta region in Nigeria," he added.

Attacks by militants in the Niger Delta have severely disrupted oil production, fueling a recession in the country's economy.

Activists have asked the government to devote more of its oil wealth to the fight against widespread poverty in an area known as the Niger Delta.

The Volta Basin

They also accuse multinational companies of polluting the environment and destroying the livelihoods of farming communities and fishermen.

Mr Jantuah fears that a similar situation will occur in Ghana with the Voltarian Basin.

The basin accounts for more than 40% of Ghana's landmbad, which extends from the east, ashanti, brong ahafo, north and volta regions.

The basin is divided into three parts, the Haute Voltaire includes mbadive sandstone and finely stratified with some schists. The Middle Voltaire also includes calcareous interbedded sandstones (Upper Greenish-Gray series), shales with calcareous intercalations, siltones, silty sandstones (variegated series) and conglomerates, while shale with calcareous intercalations. , siltstones, silty sandstones (Variegated series) and conglomerates, while interbedded limestone shales, silty sandstones (Variegated series) and conglomerates, while limestone shales intercalated with limestone) and quartzose sandstone (series basal sandstones).

An exploration and production license has been awarded to Swiss African Oil Company, a subsidiary of Swiss African Petroleum AG, for the new block.

The agreement between the government, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, the Swiss African Oil Company Limited and PET Volta Investments makes it the first onshore oil exploration transaction in the country.

The energy expert hopes that Ghana will not end up exploring the Voltarian basins like the others, leaving Ghanaians questioning the benefits of oil discovery.

"For me, I hope that we will not all simply encourage, but try as much as possible to work together to take advantage of it, so that our investors benefit and at least so that we can build this country." until a certain point. "

Future generations, in his view, will accuse the current government of not taking care of the country's natural resources.

"Please, oil and gas companies think of us too, do not just think you're going to make $ 30 billion and that's all. Because we are able to earn income from our natural resources, it also helps you not to throw away the money of your taxpayers … help us help ourselves and we all be able to build this nation because it's the only country we have. "