GHANA: Energy industry heads and government officials meet in Accra to discuss local content and participation in oil operation as part of efforts to avoid the resource curse that has plagued other oil producers like Nigeria

Record ID: 344156

  • Title: GHANA: Energy industry heads and government officials meet in Accra to discuss local content and participation in oil operation as part of efforts to avoid the resource curse that has plagued other oil producers like Nigeria
  • Date: 29th March 2012
  • Summary: ACCRA, GHANA (MARCH 28, 2012) (REUTERS) CONFERENCE ROOM SCREEN READING, "GHANA SUMMIT, OIL, GAS LOCAL CONTENT" VARIOUS OF DELEGATES SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA, GHANA'S VICE PRESIDENT SAYING: "Ladies and gentlemen we are committed to transparency in the oil sector and that's why we have extended extractive industry transparency initiative to cover that sector as well, and it is my hope that these events that we hold and the continuous interface between stakeholders, between governments and civil society would continue to push the bar of accountability for this natural resource that we have been blessed with." DELEGATES AT SUMMIT (SOUNDBBITE) (English) DAI JONES, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, TULLOW GHANA SAYING: "As a key player in Ghana's nascent oil and gas industry, it is our responsibility to ensure that Ghana is guided away from the pitfalls of other countries went through. Local participation is therefore key in this endeavour, so is transparency which relies a lot of information sharing such as this event is positioned for." EXHIBITION STAND OF OIL COMPANY EXHIBITION STAND READING: "WE REWARD CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION, GHANA NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION" JOURNALISTS MORE OF EXHIBITION VARIOUS MAHAMA LOOKING AT EXHIBITION (SOUNDBITE) (English) WILLY OLSEN, FORMER ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT AND CEO OF STATOIL, SAYING: "We see Ghana and the Ghana summit as an important meeting place, to ensure that people are surely understanding what Ghana's ambition is, but also that we can feed back into that ambition and get a good dialogue and hopefully help Ghana on its way to become a county that is seeing the huge benefit from oil and gas." EXHIBITION
  • Embargoed: 13th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ghana, Ghana
  • Country: Ghana
  • Topics: Business,Economic News
  • Reuters ID: LVAA98AHJMC94T6BHVYJ10PGPFRY
  • Story Text: Ghana's vice president John Dramani called for greater public and private partnership in the country's oil and gas industry this week, a move he said would raise vital funds to help the industry grow to its full potential. He made the comments at the 3rd annual Ghana Summit on energy, held in the capital Accra this week.
    The summit which ended on Thursday (March 29), brought together government representatives, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation management and Ghanaian and international industry leaders to discuss new developments, strategies and financing.
    Mahama also stressed the need to operate a transparent oil and gas industry to avoid the "oil curse" that has plagued other African oil producing countries, that have suffered years of internal conflicts, partly fueled by jostling over oil.
    "Ladies and gentlemen we are committed to transparency in the oil sector and that's why we have extended extractive industry transparency initiative to cover that sector as well, and it is my hope that these events that we hold and the continuous interface between stakeholders, between governments and civil society would continue to push the bar of accountability for this natural resource that we have been blessed with," said Mahama at the opening of the summit.
    In January this year, Ghanians took to the streets to protest against the removal of subsidies for fuel, a move that raised pump prices by 13 percent. A similar move in Nigeria sparked a wave of violent protests.
    The wave of protests prompted Ghana's government to introduce a 20 percent reduction in fuel price hikes.
    The West African nation, already a large gold and cocoa producer, started pumping oil from its offshore Jubilee field in December 2010, making it one of the fastest-growing countries in the world as it joined the league of crude oil exporters.
    The Jubilee offshore oil field is operated by UK-listed Tullow Oil Plc in partnership with state-owned Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), U.S. producer Anadarko Petroleum and US public energy firm Kosmos.
    They had originally aimed for output of 250,000 barrels per day by 2013, which would put them among the world's top 50 producers. But due to delays, production has averaged 80,000 bpd and first phase plateau production of 120,000 bpd is now seen early this year because of under performance by a major well.
    "As a key player in Ghana's nascent oil and gas industry, it is our responsibility to ensure that Ghana is guided away from the pitfalls of other countries went through. Local participation is therefore key in this endeavour, so is transparency which relies a lot of information sharing such as this event is positioned for," said president and general manager of Tullow Ghana, Dai Jones at the summit.
    Analysts say Ghana remains an attractive destination for investors, with more than 2.5 billion US dollars invested in the country in 2010, largely due to the oil discovery according to the 2011 World Investment Report, prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
    "We see Ghana and the Ghana summit as an important meeting place, to ensure that people are surely understanding what Ghana's ambition is, but also that we can feedback into that ambition and get a good dialogue and hopefully help Ghana on its way to become a county that is seeing the huge benefit from oil and gas," said Willy Olsen, a former adviser to the president and CEO of Statoil, an oil and gas energy company.
    According to analysts, an 800 million US dollars loan from China's Development Bank is set to boost Ghana's midstream gas infrastructure capacity and could facilitate a gradual increase in gas production over the coming years.
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