Ghana generated US$6.5 billion out of US$31 billion valued oil fields – PIAC

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The Public Interest and Accountability Committee has said Ghana only generated US$6.5 billion from oil gas exploration and production from three oil fields although activities in the sector were valued at about US$31 billion.

This, according to PIAC’s Vice Chairman, Nasir Alfa Mohammed was contained in the 10-year assessment of petroleum revenue management of the revenue watchdog from 2011 to 2022.

Speaking on JoyNews PM Express Business Edition Nasir Mohammed said, “In a decade, we should just say we have been able to get about $31 billion as the value of our oil and gas exploration and production activities. But out of that $31 billion, only about $6.5 billion of that amount was what actually came to the Ghana Group.”

“At the time we started exploring for oil, our petroleum basins were largely risky and when you have such circumstances, you’re looking for investment arrangements that will attract investors to your petroleum basins to partner with.

“So, in doing so, it was likely that we negotiated away certain benefits that ordinarily would have come to us. And so, things like tax benefits for the international oil and gas companies that were given to them, tax exemptions and all of that,” the PIAC Vice Chairman eplained.

Nasir Mohammed said although some may refer to the country’s earnings as meagre compared to the that of US$31 billion in value, Ghana was trying to create a friendly investment environment to bring in partnerships due to its inability to raise the necessary funds to conduct exploration and subsequent drilling by itself.

“We should know that even drilling one well is not an easy one and Ghana couldn’t, we were unable to do that. So, we really needed the investment and that explains why at the initial stages we really didn’t do well with our negotiations,” he pointed out.

The PIAC Vice Chair adds that since Ghana’s petroleum basins have been relatively de-risked, government through years has more negotiation power in order to benefit citizens.