Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah – Former Petroleum Minister
A Deputy Minister for Energy, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has revealed that the previous Mahama administration signed 13 petroleum contracts without securing a single oil well for Ghana.
The companies contracted by the previous Mahama administration spent $95 million without drilling an oil well in the $890 million deal.
According to the deputy minister, “These contractors under those 13 PAs were supposed to have drilled 14 wells, and they were supposed to have spent $890 million, but not a single well was drilled.”
Dr. Adam disclosed this to the media last week at the Information Ministry in Accra in reaction to claims by IMANI Africa, a policy think tank, that Ghana risks losing $30 million if it fails to negotiate a new deal with Aker Energy.
IMANI had accused Aker Energy of engaging in illegality but the government dismissed claims by IMANI.
According to the deputy minister, all the 13 petroleum contracts entered into between 2013 and 2016 for the exploration of oil were not operationalized.
Dr. Adam stated emphatically that “the contracts that have led to discoveries in Ghana were the ones signed under J. A. Kufuor, 13 contracts were signed under our opponents – the highest contracts ever signed under any government in Ghana.”
“The Tullow Block, Kosmos, which were discovered at the same time; somebody has described them as foundation contracts because they are contracts that have given us our first series of discoveries. So you have the Deep Water Tano, Cape 3 Point, and then we have the Hess.”
He said “this is why I question our opponents. None of the contracts they have signed has led to a discovery,” stressing that “13 companies were given oil blocks and expected to drill 14 wells between 2013 and 2016. We are in 2019 and not a single well has been drilled by them. People are not concerned about that?”
The deputy minister, who exposed the NDC’s propaganda in the oil industry, explained that “and so when Aker is drilling wells and somebody is engaged in semantics that this one is exploration and that are appraisal wells, drilling a well is not easy!”
He disclosed that the Akufo-Addo administration had planned to pursue aggressive exploration to increase the country’s oil reserves and production.
Energy Minister John Peter Amewu said “the PA covering the DWT/CTP contract operated by Aker Energy was executed on 8th February, 2006 between the Government of Ghana, GNPC and Amerada Hess Corporation.
He stated that the contract area has seven discoveries namely Pecan North, Almond, Cob, Beech, Pecan, Paradise and Hickory North.
By Melvin Tarlue