President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Monday, unveiled Ghana’s first ever Oil and Gas Competitive Licensing Round Bid Evaluation and Negotiation (LRBEN) in Accra.
Ghana’s Oil Exploration and Production Act, (Act 919 –2016) stipulates that, the allocation of a new exploration rights to perspective investors, should be done through an open, fair, transparent and public bidding process.
In all, six (6) Oil blocks are available for bidding and allocation. It is expected that interested investors go through the bidding process to be allocated the right to exploit the country’s oil blocks.
This competitive bidding process, forms part of a series of future oil and gas licensing rounds initiated by the government to exploit the country’s oil blocks to reach the estimated production of 100 million barrels of crude oil per day.
Revenues expected from these oil explorations will be used judiciously to finance key sectors of the economy – Education, Agriculture, infrastructure etc.
Delivery the keynote address, President Akufo-Addo charged the Ministry of Energy, the Petroleum Commission, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Licensing Rounds Committee to co-operate and ensure that activities under the maiden oil and gas licensing round were carried out in a transparent and efficient manner.
President Akufo-Addo said since the last oil discovery, and the last exploration well drilled in 2014, the pace of oil exploration in the country has slowed considerably.
“Given that production is taking place at a faster rate than reserves are being added, we need to reverse this state of affairs immediately, especially in today’s oil market environment, where crude oil prices are in the US$70 – US$80 per barrel range,†he said.
With the resolution of the maritime boundary dispute with Cote d’Ivoire, and the prevailing transparent regime for allocating petroleum rights, President Akufo-Addo remained upbeat about the many opportunities that existed for the country to reverse the slow pace of oil exploration. (article here)
Check out our other current stories!
Comments (0)