Special topics
Greetings! Another wonderful week has come to a close and we hope your week was as productive as ours. We wish you a joyous Easter and hope to have you back well rested and in full form.
This week, the Business and Financial Times (B&FT) reported the concerns of Dr. Steve Manteaw on the transparency and accountability in the oil and gas industry despite the legal provisions that have been made to facilitate this mandate. He commented at the stakeholder forum on Ghana’s Beneficial Ownership Disclosure (BOD) process organized for the middle belt in Kumasi. “Beneficiary Ownership Disclosure is an important step toward addressing company ownership anonymity, illicit financial flows, transfer pricing, terrorism financing and dealing with corruption in general” he said. He also noted a public decline in the interest in the findings of facts and figures aimed at demanding accountability from the government. To read more, click here
Also, the Deputy Minister for Energy, Mr. Mohammed Amin Adam has assured Ghanaians that the shutdown of the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah in May will not affect power generation and distribution and that the nation will not be thrown back into power fluctuations as contingencies have been arranged in this regard. The Deputy Minister, speaking with the media on a tour of the Jubilee Field said, “the shutdown is to allow maintenance works to be carried out, I want to assure Ghanaians that there is no cause for alarm; previous shutdown had effect because even though gas was available from TEN, Ghana Gas was going through maintenance and that compelled the Volta River Authority to use other means which included buying more crude oil to be able to address the power short fall at that time.” Click here to read more on this story.
The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation was reported to seek private investors for one of its subsidiary, Prestea Sankofa Gold Limited in an attempt to focus more on its core mandate. The Corporation however has intentions of pumping US$24.78M to rehabilitate the company in order to make it more appealing before offering it to investors. This decision came after GNPC caught a lot of flak from the Minority in Parliament for deviating from its core mandate. The Minister for Energy, Mr. Boakye Agyarko however stated that Prestea Sankofa was an inheritance and that GNPC is “…not going into the mining sector…if anybody had focused GNPC on its core mandate in the past, it was President Kufuor.“Recall that in the past GNPC was into all kinds of things – cocoa-growing, everything. It was President Kufuor who refocused GNPC on its core mandate. While he focused on its core mandate there were still remnants, including Prestea Sankofa Gold Limited.” Read more here
There is an ongoing agitation for beneficial ownership disclosure to prevent citizens from fronting for multinational companies, which invest in the country. This practice encourages corruption and The Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) is collaborating with Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth (GOGIG) on the issue. A study conducted by the African progress panel in 2011 showed that Africa loses about 79 billion to illicit financial flow, most of them due to the activities of shell companies registered in tax havens. “We know that a lot of people in public positions will set up companies without using their names come back and win contracts for themselves, and because they are monitoring themselves they are unable to do that diligently. They will do a project and less than a year the project starts deteriorating.” Mr Samuel Bekoe stated. Read more here
Other articles of interest have been included for your reading. Happy Easter!
Transparency in the extractive sector yet to bring accountability
https://thebftonline.com/business/transparency-in-the-extractive-sector-yet-to-bring-accountability/
AKER Energy Purchase of HESS Corp’s Business: An Eternal Departure or a Temporal Discomfort?
AN OPEN LETTER TO DR. MOHAMMED AMIN ADAM AND THE MINISTRY OF ENERGY
Can Ghana Gas Company Be a Top-Class Institution? A look at Its Mandate
Can Ghana Gas Company Be a Top-Class Institution? A look at Gas Pricing for Power Generation.
Exxonmobil In Ghana…Any Fears?
https://www.reportingoilandgas.org/rog-publications/exxonmobil-in-ghana-any-fears/
Dangers of ExxonMobil’s Presence Amidst Its Financial and Technical Abilities.
THE IMPACT OF OIL AND GAS ACTIVITIES ON LOCAL BUSINESSES
Where is GNPC With It’s Long-Term Goals?
https://www.reportingoilandgas.org/rog-publications/where-is-gnpc-with-its-long-term-goals/
Energy Value Chain Model for Ghana.
https://www.reportingoilandgas.org/rog-publications/ghana-oil-value-chain-model-for-ghana/
Kosmos trains 95 young entrepreneurs in 2018 AgriTech Challenge
Implementation of gas master plan top on gov’t agenda- Energy Minister
Instill Ethical conduct in your Engineering practice –President charges Engineers
Agyarko verbally clears BOST again
St. Louis Petroleum LLC & Mimshach Energy partner to establish fuel tank farm
Oil exploration in Keta Basin faces legal hurdles
GNPC to borrow over $500m to finance controversial 2018 budget