Boakye Agyarko
Players in Ghana’s oil industry have called on government to enforce Ghana’s local content policies as new entrants join Ghana’s oil industry.
This follows preparations by government and Exxonmobil to sign an agreement on Thursday in Accra to allow the latter to start operations in Ghana.
According to the analysts, the enforcement of the local content laws was critical to help government to avoid certain mistakes it made in past oil contracts.
Ishmael Egyekumhene, Executive Director of KITE, noted that coercing oil companies to comply with the country’s local content policies would help retain enough revenue in the system.
“Anybody signing a petroleum agreement will have to have that at the back of their minds…We have targets as to how many Ghanaians should be employed, we have targets as to where they can source various products. These are all clearly spelt out in our local content policy. So unlike 10 years ago, we are in a position where we seem to know what we like and what we expect for us so I expect them to go strictly by our local content policy,” he stated.
For this year alone, government is seeking to raise GH?3.2 billion in revenue from the oil sector.
This is slightly higher than the GH?3.1 billion estimated in 2017.
As at September 2017, government had accrued GH¢1.45 billion from the oil sector.
This year, it has also projected crude oil price of $57.36 per barrel, and production is expected to take place at Jubilee, TEN and Sankofa Gye Nyame.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko, has indicated that his outfit would subject all oil blocks contract to competitive bidding to give value for money.
“Implement open and transparent public competitive tender processes in the award of petroleum blocks, it is our target that this year we conduct the first bidding grounds for the award of exploration introduction rights to successful companies.”
Already, the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), has urged government to sanction all oil companies that fail to comply with the country’s laws guiding oil exploration.
“And how that happens, we have to continue to interrogate whether the politicians are behind them and just giving them the extension even though they are not performing. We have to continue to interrogate that to ensure that the country’s interest is rather served than that of the politicians,” Executive Director of ACEP Benjamin Boakye said.
–Citifmonline