ACCRA, Oct. 16 — The president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo inaugurated here on Monday the first “Ghana Oil and Gas Licensing Round 2018”, which is going to permit the allocation of new petroleum rights in the country through competitive and transparent means.
This the president said was among new steps being taken by government to deepen investor confidence in the country’s upstream petroleum sector management.
The open licensing regime is expected to ensure transparency by making the bidding for oil blocks competitive in order to avoid conflicts of interest, beneficial ownership and all types of corrupt practices in allocations.
Countries which have benefited immensely from their oil and gas resources Akufo-Addo noted were those that implemented policies to accelerate value addition activities in their economies, through the development of forward and backward linkages, and by investing oil revenues in strategic social and economic program.
“It is, thus, an honor for me to be able, today, to implement this important commitment by launching this maiden bidding round,” the president noted.
With global crude prices beginning to see higher numbers of between 70 US Dollars and 80 US dollars per barrel, the president emphasized the need to reverse the trend where production was outpacing discovery.
“With the resolution of the maritime boundary dispute with Cote d’Ivoire, and the prevailing, transparent regime for allocating petroleum rights, many opportunities now exist for us to reverse the slow pace of oil exploration,” he stated.
Ghana, with a new status as a net oil exporter produces oil and gas from three fields; Jubilee, Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) as well as the Sankofa-OCTP.
Under the first round of licensing the expression of interest from the International Oil Companies (IOC) is expected to be submitted by end of next month while pre-qualification of local partnering companies and IOC’s will be done in December.
Furthermore, the process will continue from next January till August next year when successful bidders would be selected
Companies that submit false information or attempt to manipulate the process to their advantage will be disqualified,” John Peter Amewu, Minister for Energy cautioned.