Special topics
BY: Vincent Baffour-Acheampong
Currently, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy, Ghana, Kwabena Donkor is 
one of the key drivers of the Ghanaian nascent oil and gas industry.
Donkor recently in Parliament moved for the adoption of the report of the Select Committee on Mines and Energy, which led to Parliament’s ratification of the petroleum agreement between the government and five organizations for the exploration of oil in the expanded shallow water Tano block.
Under the terms of the agreement, if a commercial discovery of oil is made in the expanded shallow water Tano block, the contractors would prospect for oil in the block for 25years. However, if no commercial discovery of oil is made after seven years, the contract expires. The contractors are obligated to spend a minimum of $30 million in the agreement.
An academic, technocrat and presently a political leader, Donkor straddles the worlds of energy, management and development management and pulling all the strands together in unique and elegant way for the developing country scenario.
He has lectured at the University of Bristol (UK) and the Central University College (Ghana). He was the pioneer Chief executive officer of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Ltd. (BOST), the state-owned petroleum logistics company with depots and pipelines across the country.
Donkor was also the pioneer chief executive officer of the Petroleum Commission, the upstream regulator. He has also been the deputy minister of energy with responsiblitiy for oil and gas and later, power.
Donkor holds MSc. and PhD degrees from the University of Bristol and the MBA degree from Lancaster Management School, University of Lancaster. He is also a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (UK), a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (UK) and a member of the Chartered Institute of Energy (UK).
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