Dr. Ishmael Ackah
The African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) says it will not make economic sense to relocate the headquarters of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to Takoradi, the Western Regional capital.
Currently, there is an oil boom in the Western Region, and there are indications that the incoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) government could move the strategic national asset to the region.
President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo recently emphasized the need to relocate the corporation to the Western Region when he visited the area on his ‘Thank You’ tour.
“The commitments that we have made are commitments that are going to be fulfilled. They were not platform or campaign talk. They were full commitments that we made…We are going to relocate the headquarters of GNPC to this region,” the President-elect told the chiefs of the region.
However, at a media interaction in Accra, Head of Policy Unit of ACEP, Dr Ishmael Ackah, said the decision will put policy makers in a tight corner since oil exploration will commence in other regions as well.
He said the best the government could do will be to establish subsidiary offices rather than relocate the whole headquarters to the oil hub.
“We believe that it is not something that was well thought through because very soon we are going to produce oil in the Volta Region so are we going to shift GNPC from the Western Region to the Volta Region?”
“We can maintain GNPC here and rather open a subsidiary office probably for operations in the Western Region.”
He said, “What we can also suggest is that instead of GNPC, we can rather move Petroleum Commission, which is the regulator to the Western Region.”
By William Yaw Owusu