Ghana pumped first commercial oil in 2010
PIAC releases 10-year assessment report of petroleum management
Ghana’s efforts to ramp up oil production could face some threats if measures are not implemented to review laws and principles guiding the country’s upstream sector.
This is part of findings detailed in an assessment report released by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) on petroleum revenue management covering a 10-year period.
PIAC outlined that the impact of oil production, which could affect both local and international activities, can be attributed to energy transition efforts, local content legislation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) among others.
Chairman of PIAC, Professor Kwame Adom Frimpong, speaking at the launch of the assessment report in Accra, called on stakeholders to implement key reviews on policies and regulations with regards to the petroleum sector.
“We shouldn’t forget the African Continental Free Trade Agreement is in existence and that the local content regulations must be re-looked at as soon as possible. Also, the recent conversations on the energy transition which has begun impacting on revenue inflows from the sector must also be taken into consideration because production will be heavily affected,” the PIAC Chair said.
Deputy Minister of Energy, Andrew Egyapa Mercer in response to some commendations from PIAC's assessment report highlighted, despite some challenges in the petroleum sector, government has already commenced work to address them.
“Indeed, it’s a good observation, but some of these calls are coming a bit too late because we have done some reviews of some of the regulations and more are ongoing. So, we can accommodate some other concerns” he said.
Meanwhile, the petroleum revenue watchdog, PIAC said Ghana earned an amount of US$6.55 billion from petroleum receipts between 2011 to 2020.
This represents 9.97 percent of 2020 Gross Domestic Product with the generation comprising both entitlements due to the contracting parties and the Ghana Group.
In addition, PIAC said an amount of US$31.22 billion in value has been generated from three producing oil fields in Ghana between 2011 and 2022.
Regarding the breakdown of petroleum receipts by fiscal instrument, PIAC said it discovered that Carried and Participating Interest (CAPI) has by far generated the highest share for Ghana, accounting for 58 percent or US$3.81 billion of the total US$6.55 billion revenue earned.
See PIAC's full assessment report below:
File photo of Ghana's FPSO Nkrumah oil vessel